Mediaboss Marketing

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER

A fluff piece by TIME Magazine spotlights the Koch Brothers LIBRE Initiative organization for its work being done to help illegal immigrants while President Trump and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have successfully increased immigration enforcement.

It is chaotic. People are very, very worried about their situation, says Aguado. One of the things that has been a positive thing through this stress that people have is that theyre more interested in becoming U.S. citizens. She now spends time volunteering to help her neighbors and strangers alike to figure out their immigration status, get papers in order and, in many cases, start the process of converting their legal status into citizenship.

The patrons who organize these consultation? The conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch and their deep-pocketed pals who are continuing to spend millions to help promote free-market ideas in Latino communities across the country. Through the Koch networks LIBRE Initiative, volunteers and advisers are helping immigrants study for drivers license exams so they have some form of government ID, others prepare for citizenship tests and still others earn a G.E.D. And it doesnt matter if they are here legally or not.

Longtime Koch manager Daniel Garza touted the fact that the organization does not ask immigrants seeking help what their legal status is.

We do not ask what anybodys legal status. To us, thats irrelevant. We want to help people drive. We let the politicians worry about whether someone is documented or not documented, Garza told TIME.

In the Trump administrations era of law and order, coupled with pro-American immigration enforcement, the Koch Brothers are still reaping the rewards of illegal immigration, as the TIME piece notes.

Thats one reason Koch-backed programs are experiencing a major boost in interest. In Miami, the citizenship study classes averaged 68 participants in December of last year, but last month that number rose to 210 people. Last summer, about 80 people joined the typical session in Orlando; since January, the number now averages 170. There are now 350 people on a wait list for an English-language class in Phoenix, and the citizenship efforts there have more than doubled between December and February, climbing from 30 to 80 participants at each session.

The Kochs LIBRE Initiative is also continuing to push for amnesty for the more than 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., with immigration hawks citing that there are most likely about 30 million illegal immigrants.

Despite coalitions like the Gang of Eight, which included Democrats and establishment Republicans like Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), to push amnesty, the efforts routinely are shot down as they prove to be unpopular with American voters.

Nonetheless, the Koch Brothers still see a route to work with the open borders lobby and get an amnesty through Congress.

And LIBRE is well aware of the political challenges ahead. Part of the billion-dollar policy and politics hub that the Kochs control, LIBRE is a rare voice on the right that pushes for a comprehensive immigration plan.

As the Koch network sees it, any immigration overhaul should have four major components: workers cannot be tied to a single employer in a way that leaves them little change for career advancement at rival companies, immigrants with legal status should be able to leave the country to visit their homelands, families should have the right to stay together and the system should not be overly punitive for immigrants in the country illegally. Lets not further disadvantage them. Let them get in the back of line, Garza says.

Those positions run to the left of many conservatives. Mitt Romney famously called for immigrants to participate in self-deportation and Trump led his giant rallies in cheers of build the wall. But thats precisely why Garza and his colleagues see a chance to repair the GOPs image among Latinos, who tend to be conservative on issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage even as they consistently vote for Democratic candidates.

Garza told TIME that he did not believe Trumps construction of a U.S.-Mexico border wall was a priority, although U.S. Border Patrol agents see the wall as an absolute necessity to ending illegal immigration, as Breitbart Texas reported.

The pro-amnesty, pro-free trade Koch Brothers have criticized Trumps America First agenda from its conception during the 2015-2016 presidential campaign.

As Breitbart News has reported, Trump has pushed back against the Koch Brothers, calling them puppets who are a part of the GOP establishments special interest groups.

John Binder is a contributor for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at@JxhnBinder.

Read this article:
TIME Mag: Koch Brothers Helping Illegal Immigrants Get Driver's Licenses - Breitbart News

Days after Donald Trump was elected president, the mayor of this unabashedly liberal Texas capital reassured the vast majority of immigrants here illegally that he would try to keep the city a safe haven for them.

Austin will not waver, Mayor Steve Adler told a crowd of hundreds who gathered outside City Hall for a pro-immigrant rally. In Austin, we do things our way and we will not stop.

Sally Hernandez, the new sheriff in Travis County, where Austin is located, announced the day Trump was inaugurated that she would not voluntarily comply with federal requests to detain people solely on the basis of their immigration status.

That spirit of defiance has spread across the city as activists, civic leaders and other public officials have joined the rebellion, setting up a spectacular showdown with the Republican governor and state Legislature.

Gov. Greg Abbott stripped the county of $1.5 million in criminal justice division grants for services for children, abused women and veterans in retaliation for its resolve to not cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

The state Senate passed a bill which is making its way through the House that would require local jails to comply with federal immigration requests and hold immigrants for up to 48 hours if they are in the country illegally. Sheriffs and police chiefs who refuse could be jailed for up to a year.

Elected officials dont get to pick and choose which laws they obey, the governor said in his State of the State address in January. To protect Texans from deadly danger, we must insist that laws be followed.

Just over a third of Austins 931,000 residents are Latino, compared with 80% in El Paso or 63% in San Antonio.

Yet leaders say the citys identity and business success rests on being a tolerant and cutting-edge tech hub that welcomes immigrants.

Apple, Facebook and Google want to be in Austin because of its culture, said Adler, a civil rights attorney before he became mayor.

Austin officials and other advocates for so-called sanctuary cities which refuse to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement argue that giving local authorities discretion to enforce immigration laws could encourage racial profiling and that cracking down on immigrants who are in the country illegally but otherwise law-abiding would discourage them from reporting crimes.

Were putting public safety first, and that depends on a relationship of trust between our community and law enforcement, the mayor said.

Over four days in early February, federal agents fanned across the Austin region, detaining more than 50 immigrants who were in the country illegally.

The federal government denied its actions had anything to do with the sheriffs new policy, describing its actions as a routine targeted operation. But more than half of the immigrants detained had no criminal record a substantially higher rate than other cities across the nation and a federal magistrate judge said in court last month that immigration agents had warned him to expect a big operation as payback for the sheriffs stance.

The operation has had a chilling effect on the citys immigrant communities. Many who lack documentation have stayed in their homes, afraid to attend Mass or drive their children to school.

Now that the laws changing, Im afraid Im going to lose my kids, said Patricia Martinez, a 35-year-old Mexican citizen who has been in the U.S. illegally for well over a decade.

A victim of domestic abuse, Martinez now lives in hiding in a shelter with her five daughters, all U.S. citizens. She planned to assign temporary guardianship to relatives with legal status in case she is deported.

Since federal agents detained a Mexican immigrant inside the Travis County courthouse last month as he left a hearing for misdemeanor charges of domestic assault and possession of marijuana, others without legal status have been reluctant to appear in court, even as witnesses, according to their attorneys.

Austin has been pushing back.

The local police force has held a string of town hall meeting to reassure immigrants they are not a target.

Were telling them were interested in your safety and were not focused on your immigration status, said Brian Manley, Austins police chief. Every time my officers spend enforcing immigration law is time theyre not spending fighting crime.

Activists have set up neighborhood warning systems, using telephones and social media to track law enforcement activity and alert people when to hide, and offering services and financial help to families who risk losing their main breadwinner.

The City Council has used money from its emergency relief fund to pay $200,000 to Catholic Charities of Central Texas, which provides immigrants with legal assistance and has seen its legal consultations double from 25 to 50 clients a week.

Some are legal residents who suddenly feel more urgent about applying for citizenship. Others want to know if they have any chance of legal status.

Lawyers are holding Know Your Rights meetings, and legal clinics are offering deportation defense.

In an effort to throw off federal agents, some attorneys have sought to keep clients out of court, by getting waivers from judges or in some instances entering guilty pleas.

I kind of dont care that ICE knows that were doing this, said attorney Daniel Betts. If it continues, its going to be a cat-and-mouse game.

Jarvie is a special correspondent.

Excerpt from:
As Trump and Texas crack down on illegal immigration, Austin rebels - Los Angeles Times

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday called on federal prosecutors in Georgia and across the nation to take aim at illegal immigration.

In a three-page memo he sent the nations U.S. attorneys, Sessions told them to prioritize prosecuting people caught smuggling others into the U.S.; illegally reentering the country after being deported; committing identify theft and document fraud; and assaulting immigration enforcement officers.

An estimated 11.1 million unauthorized immigrants were living in the U.S. in 2014, according to the Pew Research Center. Of those, 250,000 were in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell area.

For those that continue to seek improper and illegal entry into this country, be forewarned: This is a new era, Sessions told U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials during a visit to the southwest border in Arizona Tuesday. This is the Trump era. The lawlessness, the abdication of the duty to enforce our immigration laws and the catch and release practices of old are over.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Northern District of Georgia declined to comment about how his office would implement Sessions mandate.

A Washington-based immigrant advocacy group said Sessions directive would sow fear and chaos.

Criminalizing immigration violations among individuals who are peaceably living in and contributing to our communities only will sow fear and chaos, said Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum. Immigration enforcement should prioritize violent criminals and traffickers. Yet this new policy does just the opposite by requiring federal prosecutors to prioritize immigration violations rather than violent criminals and threats to community safety.

Visit link:
AG to federal prosecutors: Get tough on illegal immigration - Atlanta Journal Constitution

Immigration hawk Rep. Steve King says he's "very disappointed on the lack of action" by the Trump administration to stop illegal immigration.

In an interview with the Daily Caller, the Iowa Republican said the White House hasn't kept its promise to undo the Obama-era executive orders protecting illegal immigrants the "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals," which has protected over 750,000 from deportation since 2012, and "Deferred Action for Parents of Americans," which was held up by a court decision.

"Every day this has been a violation of the Constitution," he said of the executive actions, adding, "Every day [the Trump administration is] complicit it is harder to resolve is [Trump] going to force us to go back to court again?

King also said he's "not too confident" Congress will appropriate the funds needed for immigration enforcement and that not building the border wall along the nation's southern border would be a "major failure" for Congress and the administration.

"We have an obligation to get those resources in place so the president can fulfill his campaign promise," King told the Daily Caller.

2017 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

See the rest here:
Rep. Steve King: 'Very Disappointed' With Trump on Illegal Immigration - Newsmax

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Saturday it "makes no sense" that sanctuary cities want to fight the federal government to prevent detention of illegal immigrants.

Sessions said that voters in those areas must hold their local government accountable to keep their cities safe.

David Webb Slams Elizabeth Warren: I'm Not Taking Nat'l Security Advice From Her

Judge Pirro on Brutal MS-13 Murders: Obama Immigration Policies Made Threat Worse

Dem State Rep to GOP Woman: 'I Wanted to Punch Her in the Throat'

"We're going to put pressure on these cities," he said on "Justice with Judge Jeanine." "We're going to battle them every step of the way."

Sessions said he will stand firm on his plan to withhold grant money from cities that do not abide by federal immigration laws.

He said some police departments do not necessarily agree with their orders to ignore ICE detainers, but must operate at the pleasure of the mayor.

"They think this is crazy," Sessions said.

Earlier this week, Sessions said illegal immigrant criminals and drug cartels are turning American cities into "warzones."

"It is a direct threat to our legal system, peace and prosperity, he said in Nogales, Ariz.

Watch the "Justice" interview above.

RPT: DNC Email Urges AZ Supporters to 'Go Get in Jeff Flake's Grill' at Town Hall

'What Is the Strategy?': Warren Calls for Explanation from Trump of MOAB Strike

Hannity: World Experiencing 'Trump Adjustment Syndrome' After Obama

Visit link:
Sessions on Sanctuary City Leaders: 'We're Going to Battle Them Every Step of the Way' - Fox News Insider