One order deals with work visas; the other addresses social services for legal immigrants who are already in the United States. It’s an indication that the many immigration restrictions Trump has signed are not the full scope of what key advisers have discussed. The draft dealing with legal immigrants’ use of social services could have further-reaching implications for legal immigrants currently in the US than anything the president’s already signed.
Legal immigrants currently get access to some public benefits in some circumstances. But the federal government — already, under existing law — can bar someone from coming to the US, or from becoming a permanent resident, if there’s any evidence he or she will become a “public charge.”
Currently, the federal government looks at use of cash benefits (like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) when it’s making “public charge” decisions, but not in-kind benefits like Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
This executive action, though — according to the draft obtained by Vox, which seems consistent with the Post’s reporting — would ask the Department of Homeland Security to issue a rule saying that an immigrant can’t be admitted to the US if he’s likely to get any benefit “determined in any way on the basis of income, resources, or financial need.”
People who use any of those benefits and are in the US on visas would be subject to deportation. And the order would even require the person who sponsored an immigrant into the US to reimburse the federal government for any benefits the immigrant used (something that the government can theoretically ask for in individual cases now, but rarely does).
This is draconian. It seeks to punish not only legal immigrants in the US and their families, but their US-citizen relatives. It’s a reflection of a worldview in which any benefit that an immigrant gets from the government is, in some way, a theft of American tax money — and punishes immigrants as thieves accordingly.
The draft order (or at least the draft obtained by Vox last week) would also seek to show this to the public, by using government reports to make the case against immigrants’ use of public services.
It would direct the government to publish regular reports on the benefits used by immigrants in the US — and how that money could be “reinvested” in the inner cities, something Trump proposed as a candidate.
One of the reports requested in the order would be a report on the cost of the entire Refugee Assistance Program — the program by which the US helps refugees get settled, obtain jobs, and learn English. Refugees are responsible for much of immigrant welfare use in the US because they’re not selected for their high earning potential — they’re selected because of their humanitarian need. But consistent with the forthcoming order restricting refugee admissions entirely, this memo sees refugees as a drain on the public coffers.
Unauthorized immigrants aren’t spared by the order: It would prevent families from getting the child tax credit if the parents are unauthorized (even if the children are US citizens), and it would prevent an unauthorized immigrant from being eligible for Social Security during the time he was unauthorized (even if he was paying into the system, as many do, using a fake Social Security number). But for the most part, this order doesn’t crack down on unauthorized immigrants to protect legal immigrants; it cracks down on immigrants, and their US citizen children, for the sake of the native-born citizens.
Trump’s immigration brain trust, including Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, and Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions, have long been animated by the belief that immigrants are a drain on America — and their use of social services is one way to demonstrate that. Whether or not this particular executive order is signed, “walling off the welfare state” from immigrants in the US may well remain in the White House’s sights.
Tag: boosting that signal
Quebec City mosque shooting: 5 reported dead, 2 suspects arrested
- Five people are reportedly dead and multiple people are injured following a shooting at a mosque in Quebec City, Canada, according to Reuters.
- The president of the mosque delivered the news of the shooting to reporters on Sunday, Reuters reported.
- The shooting occurred during evening prayers at the Quebec City Islamic Cultural Center. A witness told Reuters that up to three gunmen opened fire on around 40 people. Read more
Update: 6 dead; Trudeau calls it “terrorism attack on Muslims”
- Canadian PM Justin Trudeau denounced the shooting at a mosque in Quebec City, Canada, as “a terrorism attack on Muslims” on Sunday.
- According to eyewitness accounts, gunmen stormed the Quebec City Islamic Cultural Center during evening prayers and open fired.
- Six people are confirmed dead from the attack. Their ages, according to Quebec Provincial Police, ranged from 35 to 70 years of age.
- “We condemn this terrorism attack on Muslims in a center of worship and refuge,” Trudeau said in a statement after hearing news of the attack. Read more
Today, January 28th 2017, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security clarified that Trump’s executive order will stop green card holders from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen from returning to the United States if they travel abroad. "It will bar green card holders,“ Gillian Christensen, acting Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, said.(source)
Later in the day an administration official said that they’re making “case-by-case” exceptions to allow certain green-card holders into the US. (source) Some residents are being admitted after lots of questioning but many are being turned away. Those who hold long-term temporary visas will also be included in this. (source) This mainly includes students and workers who have the right to live in the United States for years at a time.
Note that Canadian citizens who are also citizens of these seven countries have also been banned from entering the United States. (source) In fact, all citizens who hold dual nationality with one of the seven banned countries are barred from entering the U.S. and those who initially hail from one of those seven countries but travel on passports issued from another non-banned nation will also be barred. (source)
Keep all this in mind if you are or were planning to travel and this applies to you.
There was a fire at the Victoria Islamic Center in
Victoria, TX⬇️ this the link to donate⬇️
https://www.gofundme.com/victoria-islamic-center-rebuilding🌐This is the facebook page of the center:🌐
https://m.facebook.com/Victoria-Islamic-Center-100232630071179/📰News articles📰
1) https://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2017/jan/28/breaking-fire-consumes-victoria-islamic-center/2) https://www.google.com/amp/abc13.com/amp/news/fire-destroys-victoria-mosque/1725497/?client=safari
3) http://www.caller.com/story/news/2017/01/28/victoria-mosque-destroyed-early-morning-blaze/97183106/
4) https://www.google.com/amp/s/thinkprogress.org/amp/p/8a683f632a7a?client=safari
⬇️ link to donate⬇️
https://www.gofundme.com/victoria-islamic-center-rebuildingplease share and donate if you can!
just to clarify, this means that any information regarding:
- BIA-funded K12 schools
- BIA-funded educational programs, namely tribal adult ed funding and the Johnson O’Malley program (which provides critical funding to fill in deficits for Native students; the idea is that because Native families do not pay property taxes on their tribal land, those students don’t “contribute” money to their local school district, so the feds chip in to cover the difference…JOM pays for things like after school programs, school supplies, libraries, etc for K12)
- BIA law enforcement on tribal lands
- questions on potential policy changes
- current issues/bills in Congress that would affect Indian Country
- other federally-funded programs, like funds from OVW to support tribal domestic violence programs (which it sounds like Trump is working on cutting)
- the relationship tribes have with federal law enforcement and public lands management (like the national parks)
- tribal government petitions/communications to the federal government
etc, all must be approved by Trump’s staff before being sent to tribal leadership. effectively this means the BIA can’t really do their job at all, because they have to be in near-constant communication with tribes at many different levels (for example, when i worked in a tribal dept of education, we frequently contacted BIA for meetings, advice, interpretations of grant stipulations, etc)
so basically this puts tribes in a very difficult situation by keeping them in the dark, and it further erodes whatever shreds of trust we may have had with the federal government. the only reason for this ban on communication without approval is that there is information they don’t want BIA to give our leadership??
The New York Times got a copy of a draft executive order from the Trump administration proposing to bring back CIA black sites and torture techniques. Beyond the disturbing nature of the proposal itself, the document is interesting because it shows both original text and subsequent edits. Here, I pulled out two specific examples of how the Trump administration explicitly tailors it’s language towards nationalist and mutedly Islamophobic demagoguery:
-Replacing “our Nation” with “our homeland”
-Replacing “global war on terrorism” with “fight against radical Islamism”You should all definitely check out the article, along with the document itself.
The shift from “Nation” to “homeland” is pretty self-explanatory, but I think the rhetorical leap from “global war on terrorism” to “fight against radical Islamism” is also a pretty radical one. The obvious change there is the inclusion of the term “Islam,” even if in modified form, so as to activate Islamophobia in his base whenever they hear it and to keep the debate centered around that topic. But there’s other significant changes there too. The dropping of the word “global,” perhaps to shun an implication of militant internationalism. The shift from the formal “war” to the more informal, personal, almost vindictive “fight.” The shift in subject from the action of “terrorism” to the ideology of “radical Islamism.” And, as a whole, the attempt to make a continuation of at-times unpopular U.S. military involvement in the MENA region seem like a break with past by dropping “war on terror” terminology. There’s a lot to unpack there.
“Global war on terrorism,” used by Bush and Obama, sounds like a name designed to avoid criticism- to portray what’s being done as broad and widespread yet noble and uncontroversial. “Fight against radical Islamism” sounds far more aggressive, more like a battle slogan than carefully-worded Washington-speak. This seems very rhetorically important.
Senate Democrats are expected to filibuster, so tell your Democratic Senator (and the two pro-choice Senate Republicans, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski) that you don’t support this bill and don’t want it to pass the Senate.
http://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a8635781/house-passes-hr7/
The bill, which passed by a vote of 238–183, codifies the Hyde Amendment, a rule passed in 1976 that prohibits any taxpayer money from being used to fund abortions. What H.R. 7 will do, in effect, is cut off taxpayer funding to insurance plans that choose to cover abortion, even though those funds have been prohibited for use on abortion care ever since the Hyde Amendment was passed four decades ago. That’s why the bill’s title, “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2017,” is misleading — it’s already illegal in the United States for federal tax dollars to be used to fund abortions.
H.R. 7 also takes the Hyde Amendment a bit farther and would prohibit abortion coverage from being offered in multi-state health insurance plans created under the Affordable Care Act. According to a statement released by the Center for Reproductive Rights, the bill would cause millions of American women to lose insurance coverage for abortion.
Heads up, especially to my Maine and Alaska followers who could flip Collins and Murkowski. Call your senators.
RITE SO LISTEN UP KITTENS AUNTIE OYD HAS SOME IMPORTANT INFO:
guess what? this affects like, every insurance ever. even those of us who have good insurance like tricare. the hyde amendment already makes it impossible to get abortions in any tax-funded facility (like u.s. military treatment facilities anywhere in the world) UNLESS you can prove an imminent threat to the pregnant person’s life. now idk what kind of exceptions we are talking about (if any) with h.r. 7., but you really have to think about what sorts of reasons people have abortions. they’re not always choice or convenience (most of you know this but it bears repeating for the people in the back) but it’s okay if that is why you choose one. but sometimes there are time-sensitive emergencies and even medical professionals don’t treat them as such.
this means termination of ectopic pregnancies may not be covered until something ruptures, which could kill you pretty damned fast. i had to wait two days for blood work to verify that i was at risk with high enough hormone levels before my insurance would allow me to get an abortion. another friend of mine was forced to carry her dead fetus because induction is considered abortion. she ended up getting a severe infection that threatened her life and eventually caused her to go into labor where she delivered a baby she already knew was dead. but this took weeks. and if you’re stationed in a country that outlaws abortion, you have absolutely no recourse unless you can get leave and afford to fly to another country (or find unsafe means like the marine who used the cleaning rod for her weapon on herself) .
the hyde amendment on its own is terrible and scary and puts lives at risk. this spreads this shitshow around to the rest of y’all who may have had coverage for these things up until now, and basically screws all of us over and threatens lives.
Call. Your. Senators. Now.
-V
WE NEED 3 SENATORS TO CHANGE THEIR VOTES TO PREVENT DeVos FROM BEING CONFIRMED!!!
The vote to confirm Betsy DeVos as Sec of Education was delayed. The hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will now be held at 10 a.m. Jan. 31, according to an advisory from the committee.
And now to act (esp my ME, GA, NC and SC friends)! Betsy DeVos is up for confirmation as U.S. Education Secretary, and many, many educators have expressed strongly that she is not qualified to ensure quality education in this country.Please consider calling one of the following Republican Senators (key in the confirmation vote) to express your opinion on the appointment. At least 3 of these need to be convinced in order to block DeVos’ nomination. Don’t email. Don’t tweet. Don’t complain on Facebook. Call them!
Then, PLEASE SHARE WIDELY:
If you live in one of the states represented below, PLEASE call YOUR Senator, If you don’t, pick one and call him/her:
Susan Collins (ME) 207.622.8414..&..202.224.2523
Lamar Alexander (TN) 615.736.5129..&..202.224.4944
Lisa Murkowski (AK) 907.586.7277..&..202.224.6665
Johnny Isakson (GA) 770.661.0999..&..202.224.3643
Orrin Hatch (UT) 801.524.4380..&..202.224.5251
Richard Burr (NC) 336.631.5125..&..202.224.3154..&.. 910.251.1058..&..828.350.2437
Michael Enzi (WY) 202.224.3424
Dr. Bill Cassidy (LA) 202.224.5824
Pat Roberts (KS) 202.224.4774
Tim Scott (SC) 202.224.6121
Rand Paul (KY) 202.224.4343Battlestations, my Yankee Activist peeps
gonna call lamar alexander tomorrow
Booooooost
CALL YOUR DANG REPRESENTATIVES
Susan Collins (ME) 207.622.8414..&..202.224.2523
Lamar Alexander (TN) 615.736.5129..&..202.224.4944
Lisa Murkowski (AK) 907.586.7277..&..202.224.6665
Johnny Isakson (GA) 770.661.0999..&..202.224.3643
Orrin Hatch (UT) 801.524.4380..&..202.224.5251
Richard Burr (NC) 336.631.5125..&..202.224.3154..&.. 910.251.1058..&..828.350.2437
Michael Enzi (WY) 202.224.3424
Dr. Bill Cassidy (LA) 202.224.5824
Pat Roberts (KS) 202.224.4774
Tim Scott (SC) 202.224.6121
Rand Paul (KY) 202.224.4343
This is really quite a big deal. A tremendous amount of modern research ends up being sold to journals which require unreasonable payments to access it and only pay the original authors a pittance. It’s nice to see an agency like NASA deliberately widebanding its findings.
Not sure if people fully realize just how big of a deal this is.
THIS is how science is advanced. Not through biased corporate research, business secrets, marketing, paywalls and patent wars. But through open, uncensored and unrestricted public access to knowledge.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/?term=%22nasa+funded%22[Filter]
^ There’s the direct link to all the studies.
NASA IS GOOD, NASA IS GREAT
NASA is the hero we don’t deserve.
This deserves every reblog.
DOWNLOAD AS MUCH AS YOU CAN bc there’s good reason to believe this isn’t going to stay available.
myblog 