Progressive Twitter was heated today as word of Tulsi Gabbard support of
Medicare For All turns out not to be actual support for Medicare For
All. Tim Black unpacks the facts.
Rudy Giuliani played a key role in almost every aspect of the
justifications for impeaching Donald Trump. He also has legal jeopardy
issues to deal with apart from Trump, seeing as though he has seemingly
failed to register as a foreign agent as required by the Foreign Agents
Registration Act (FARA).
Rep. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Donald Trump Impeachment
Inquiry, meanwhile MSNBC's Chuck Todd was lit. Tim Black serves up the
political gumbo.
Let's get straight what the straw that broke Nancy Pelosi's back on impeachment
was. It wasn't the phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
where he said he wanted that country to go after Joe Biden and his son
(or at least make it look like they were going after them). It wasn't
the implication of the resident of the United States using our
country's relationship with a foreign country to go after a political
opponent, to, really, collude with that country.
While surely that call and Trump's admitted actions played a role in
Pelosi finally giving in to her increasingly restive and vocal caucus,
it was really more cut-and-dried: the law says that if a whistleblower
gives information to the inspector general of the intelligence community
that the IG deems "urgent" and legitimate, it must be given to the
proper congressional committees. It's that fucking simple. And even
though Pelosi has let some things slide (like Trump refusing to turn
over his taxes to the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, as
required by law), this one could not only be couched in terms of
"national security" since it involves, you know, intelligence. But the
motherfucking IG who found it urgent is a Trump appointee.
You know how this is gonna play out over the next few days: Trump has
already said he's going to release the "transcript" of his July 25 call
with Zelensky. And let's be clear: it ain't gonna be a transcript,
unless they record the calls in the Oval Office, which would be peak
Trump stupidity, and even then there's no way to trust it. Probably the
transcript will show that Trump never said, "Hey, Voldemort, dick over
Biden or no bomb money for you." But, as Jeffrey Toobin and others have
said today, if Trump even mentions Biden's name, it's abuse of power.
I'm betting that, if you're really concerned about corruption in
Ukraine, there are lots of people not named Biden involved. (Besides,
Hunter Biden was already completely cleared of any involvement in anything. He was never even formally accused of anything.)
This fuckin' dance will go something like the Mueller Report. Because
it's not absolutely obvious to the dumbest dumb ass what's going on in
the phone call, most Republicans and Fox "news" and Twitter fucknuts
will proclaim it a "witch hunt" and try to discredit the whole
impeachment effort.
But we don't even know if that's all that the whistleblower was talking about. As I write this, the New York Times is reporting
that the White House is figuring out how much to allow the
whistleblower to speak to Congress, which, again, is not what the law
says. It's a distraction strategy so that that array of leperous whores
who run interference for Trump can say to his idiot hordes of voters,
"See? Look how transparent your orange god is."
While I'm still leaning agnostic on the whole "this is finally what
brings this motherfucker down" early celebration because we've been
burned so many times before, I gotta say that there is something
different going on here. First off, today, Mitch McConnell, that
infected sore on the scrotum of politics, went along with a nonbinding
resolution calling
for the whistleblower's complaint to be given to the intelligence
committees, and it passed with unanimous consent. Say what you will
about it, but it gives Democrats some pretty potent ammunition to say
that Trump, Barr, and the Acting Director of National Intelligence are
being fucking criminals by holding it back.
If I were an optimistic person, I'd say that we might see some
Republicans start to peel off as people wake up and see that, at last,
in a game of chicken with the White House, Democrats in the House did
not swerve at the last minute. It's a whole lot more fun to root for a
fighter, and if polls start to show growing support for impeachment, I'd
say some GOP House members, at the very least, are gonna start to get a
little nervous about keeping their lips super glued to Trump's
voluminous ass.
And I've seen a few conservatives in the media agreeing
that Trump admitted to impeachable offenses when he bragged that he
talked about the Bidens with Zelensky. Maybe we'll get more who give a
shit about the rule of law, but I wouldn't hold my breath. The one thing
I would say to any Republicans who might be reading: "Fuck you." And
then the next thing I'd say is "You knew it was gonna come to this. You
knew Trump was just that vile and depraved and greedy and dumb and
narcissistic. How else was this gonna go?" Perhaps I'd add: "Did you see
him at the United Nations today? Sweet Jesus, I thought he was gonna
collapse into himself like a deflating yoga ball. He ain't right. You
wanna stand by that?"
We are at the beginning now. I don't think this will be like the oddly
fast Clinton impeachment, which took a little over two months (with the
trial and acquittal in the Senate over two months after that). That came
in the wake of the Starr Report, so it was a response to a full,
ludicrous, shameful sham of an investigation. We're starting from
scratch here. Let's have some hearings on the TV, please. Drag Trump's
ass for as long as it's necessary.
What Nancy Pelosi finally did was to stop allowing Democrats to be so
goddamned feckless and seemingly random in their attempts to investigate
Trump and his administration. An effective Democratic caucus would have
already gone after Trump for profiting off his position or for what was
revealed in the Mueller Report, which essentially said, "You gotta
impeach this crooked cock."
Now Democrats can have a crystal clear, simple message that can tie
together the threads of all the various committees' work:
Trump is a
criminal, and here are all the ways he has violated the law, his oath of office, and the public trust. Now let's impeach the motherfucker.
Gird yer loins, oh, good Trump-haters of America, for things are gonna
get intense and weird and possibly (even more) violent, if his
yahoo-brigade starts to think their racist president is going down.
We've finally, really joined the battle. It's about goddamn time.
(One last note: Rudy Giuliani is fucked. He better cut some deals fast because Trump is selling him out in a heartbeat.)
Published Sep 24, 2019 at 3:54 AM | Updated 7 minutes ago
Democrats lined up in ever greater
numbers Tuesday urging an impeachment probe of resident Donald Trump,
pushed to action by his phone call with Ukraine's new leader and what
Trump may or may not have said about corruption, frozen U.S. millions
and Democratic rival Joe Biden. Trump said he would release a transcript
of the call on Wednesday.
Attention
focused on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has resisted calls for an
impeachment inquiry for months. But as more members of her caucus
pressed for a probe — including crucial moderates in political swing
districts — the speaker planned to huddle with her members late Tuesday
afternoon.
Advisers said she would make a statement on the path forward
at 5 p.m. EDT.
Pelosi is expected
to announce she backs a formal impeachment inquiry, according to two
Democratic sources close to her, NBC News reported.
In
an appearance ahead of that meeting, Pelosi sidestepped questions about
whether she believed Trump's actions were impeachable, but she said it
would be wrong for the president to ask a foreign leader for help
investigating Biden, a leading contender for the Democratic presidential
nomination.
"We don't ask foreign governments to help us in our election," Pelosi said.
At
issue is a summer phone call Trump had with Ukraine's president, which
came to Congress' attention through a whistleblower complaint. Trump has
insisted he did nothing wrong in the call, but has suggested he raised
Biden and his son Hunter as part of discussions over corruption in
Ukraine — despite no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of either man.
Moments before Pelosi spoke, Trump tweeted that he had authorized the release on Wednesday of a transcript of the call.
"You will see it was a very friendly and totally appropriate call," Trump said
The times in which we live are too tenuous to be complacent about Donald
Trump's shameful disregard for the law and institutional norms. We must
communicate to our leaders that settling for anything other than
removing Trump from office is a non-starter! We have an obligation to
our family, friends, and neighbors to build a better country than we
were given. That starts with ridding ourselves of Donald Trump as resident!
Every fucking day they went after President Obama. Every fucking day
they looked for the merest hint, some seemingly insignificant spark that
they could fan into a full conflagration, some misstep that would give
his evil game away. Every fucking day the syphilitic cocks of the right
tried to prove that Barack Obama, who was clearly guilty of being
president while black, was a Muslim, anti-American traitor out to
destroy the good (white) American way of life.
Goddamn, the things they came up with. It's almost laughable. They thought a photo of him holding Fareed Zakaria's book The Post-American World proved that he was some kind of crazy radical. Vile sack of rotting flesh with a bloated fish head on top Dick Cheney more or less called
Obama a traitor for daring to have an exit strategy for the endless
(and still going) war in Afghanistan (Cheney really said, "I think it’s
likely to give encouragement — aid and comfort — to the enemy"). Hell,
one human-shaped fart, former Rep. Trent Franks, called
Obama "an overt traitor to the state of Israel," to which any American
ought to say, "The fuck?" Fun fact: Franks was forced to resign from
Congress over sexual harassment allegations for offering women on his staff money to bear his child.
This isn't even to get into all the treachery that was implied by birtherism. Or all the shit said
by the racist fuck nuts in stupid hats that made up the goddamned Tea
Party. Or every conservative twatmite trying to get some ratings or
publicity by insulting Obama or accusing him of high crimes.
Donald Trump, of course, was into this degradation of President Obama
long before he ran for president in 2016 and went into overdrive while
running. In June 2016, after the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in
Orlando, Trump said of
Obama that "we're led by a man that either is not tough, not smart, or
he's got something else in mind." And, because Trump is a cowardly
bitch, he hinted rather than stated, "And the something else in mind —
you know, people can't believe it. People cannot, they cannot believe
that President Obama is acting the way he acts and can't even mention
the words 'radical Islamic terrorism.' There's something going on. It's
inconceivable. There's something going on."
You gotta think about those last lines - "It's inconceivable. There's
something going on" - in light of the whistle-blower allegations that
Trump did something so alarming that an intelligence official felt
compelled to report it to the inspector general of the intelligence
community, who found it "urgent" enough that he wanted to tell Congress
but was stopped by Trump's Acting Director of National Intelligence.
Think about all those attacks on Obama, all those digging into the
minute details of his words, his dress, his friends, Michelle, all in a
vain attempt to show he was a traitor.
And compare that to Donald Trump, who it now seems
was holding up funding to Ukraine, perhaps to try to force the country
to find or create dirt on Joe Biden and/or Biden's son. That funding was
passed by Congress, so, yeah, maybe they have an interest in this.
Or compare it to Trump's ongoing coddling and support of savage
dictators and monarchs, like Kim Jong-un or MBS, or that prick Putin.
Compare it to Trump saying he was awaiting word from Saudi Arabia on
whether we should go to war for "the Kingdom." Trump always accuses
others of being guilty of the very crimes he has committed. And you
don't even have to try very hard to find them.
The right, especially the GOP in Congress, won't say a fucking word
about the traitor whose traitorous acts are staring them right in their
dumb faces. And that makes them accessories to Trump's crimes. But
they'll go right ahead calling for investigations of Obama and Clinton
and whoever else they can throw up as a smoke screen to their genuine
destruction of our democracy.
After the Lewandowski debacle, Mystal appeared on The Beat to exhort
the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee to let the experts handle the
questioning of witnesses, and demonstrated why.
Corey Lewandowski seemed to run the table
on the Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. He was stonewalling, pretending
to not remember his own notes and conversations, getting in jabs about
his alleged "good looks," plugs for his Senate run, and just getting
away with grossly ethically deviant and defiant behavior. He and Brett
Kavanaugh must be very fond of one another.
It was painful to watch even for the average layperson, but for legal
eagles like Elie Mystal and Ari Melber, it was excruciating. Mystal
joined Melber on "The Beat" on Wednesday to give a master class on the
way to handle hostile, bratty, entitled, criminal douchebros like
Lewandowski. He also gave the Democrats some pretty solid advice on how
to move on with these proceedings.
MYSTAL: I was frustrated very much yesterday. If the Democrats want to
move forward with this, if they want to truly put country over party,
that has to start at home. They need to get over themselves and let the
professionals handle this going forward. Nobody is is tuning into the
hearings to see 17 Democratic Congresspeople waffle about on their
poorly prepared questions that they got off of an episode of "Law and
Order." This takes professional cross-examination to deal with the
sneering hostility that the Trump people are giving them. They don't
know how to do it. That's not a total slam on them. You have to be
trained to do this. Pro tip, if you find yourself yelling at a witness,
"That's a yes or no question!" Guess what? Your question was bad.
Because if you asked a good question, there IS only two options, right?
Then Mystal demonstrated in a hilarious mini-cross-examination to drive the point even further home.
MYSTAL: Ari, do you like ties? That's not a yes or no question! Mr. Melber, are you wearing a tie today?
MELBER: Yes.
MYSTAL: Did you wear a tie yesterday?
MELBER: Yes.
MYSTAL: Here are 137 episodes of The Beat. Is this you in all the
episodes? Are you wearing a tie in all these episodes? Mr. Melber! Do
you want this committee to believe that you do not like ties?
THAT'S how you do it. It's an actual skill
that the Democratic Congresspeople don't have. This whole hearing should
have been designed to make Barry Berke the star. Because HE is the one
who had the credentials and the experience to break Lewandowski down.
Melber harkened back to Watergate, and Senator Fred Thompson, who
ended up on the show Mystal used as an example in his rant — "Law and
Order." (Well-played, Ari, we see you...) But the point was Sen.
Thompson was extremely skilled in cross-examination and THAT was the
skill that was needed in that moment, like it is needed in this one. He
reinforced Mystal's point that Dems on the Judiciary Committee who are
anything short of BRILLIANT at cross-examination should cede the floor to people who are. All egos aside. And Mystal explained why.
MYSTAL: Everybody wants their little moment. But this is not what this
should be. Democrats keep telling us that we are in unprecedented
waters. With a uniquely criminal president. Well, they need to start
acting like that. And the way you act like that is to have, again, these
professional prosecutors, these professional attorneys really hammer
down on these witnesses.
There's nothing -- there's a level of obstruction that the Trump
administration is willing to go to.
There's a level of disrespect that
the Trump witnesses are willing to go to that these Congresspeople
simply aren't used to dealing with. They are not ready to deal with
that. And again, that's training. We have people who are specifically
trained to deal with criminals and hostile witnesses and know how to
illicit answers from them.
Then Melber asked Mystal a Yes or No question of his own...
MELBER: My last question for you, yes or no, is will you come back?
MYSTAL: I absolutely will come back. Because I don't lie when I'm here.
It was a great teaching moment for Dems, who cannot afford to miss
ANY MORE learning opportunities like this. I hope they were watching. I
hope they take his advice. Because if they don't, then it may turn out
Nancy Pelosi's instinct for avoiding impeachment may be the the right
one, but not for the reason everyone thinks. It might be because she
knows what Mystal is saying is true - they aren't able to get out of
their own way enough to do the job right.
I say that with all the love and faith in the Dems on that committee, but we need
this and we cannot afford any missteps or missed opportunities like we
had when Lewandowki was in front of them.
DON'T fuck it up. For the love
of all that is holy, let the experts handle this.
While not a shocking development, it is still an egregious admission to
make for someone with aspirations to run for a United States Senate seat
in New Hampshire! Corey Lewandowski is a liar and shill for Donald
Trump. He works in service to a damaging agenda for our nation.
At a MAGA rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, Rebel HQ’s Emma Vigeland (https://Twitter.com/EmmaVigeland) asked Trump supporters what they think about Senator Bernie Sanders and his policies.
As chief prosecutor for Minnesota’s most populous county from 1999 to
2007, Klobuchar declined to bring charges in more than two dozen cases
where people were killed by police.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg calls for civility and an end to division and a nicer
country. Pete Buttigieg lives in a world where our problems take a back
seat to warm and fuzzy feelings. Tim Black goes in Johnson!
Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Pete
Buttigieg, Andrew Yang, Cory Booker, Julian Castro, Beto O'Rourk and Amy
Klobuchar faced off in the third debate. Tim Black makes the
establishment BIG MAD on this one.
PLEASE watch and share this eyeopening and critically important report
on the continuing efforts of Republicans (all over the nation) to shut
down HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of polling places in Black and Latino
communities!
You don't really need to know why model and TV host Chrissy Teigencalledresident Donald Trump a "pussy ass bitch." I mean, you can probably
think of a dozen reasons right off the top of your head and nod, saying,
"Yeah, that makes sense." Because, obviously, Donald Trump is a pussy
ass bitch. He's always been a pussy ass bitch. He'll always be a pussy
ass bitch with his pussy ass bitch sons and his pussy ass bitch
business.
It's more a question of degrees than a discussion of whether or not it's
true. We know it's true. We just need to figure out how much. And
Trump's actions in the last few days give us ample opportunity to
examine the amount of pussy ass bitch he's been.
So let's take a look at the evidence of pussy ass bitchery.
1. Trump fired
National Security Adviser John Bolton by tweet because he's always been
too much of a pussy ass bitch to fire anyone in person unless they are
fake employees on his old game show. (Note: John Bolton is dangerously
bat shit insane and should be sprayed with a fire hose if he comes
anywhere near a government position, but he's not a pussy ass bitch.)
2. He had Commerce Secretary Wilbur "Hey, Can You Check to See If Wilbur's Dead" Ross threaten
to fire people at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
This was after some NOAA employee in Birmingham, Alabama, did the
responsible thing last week and informed the public that Donald Trump
was totally wrong when he said that their state was in the path of
Hurricane Dorian. We had a week-long fit from Trump because he was too
much of a pussy ass bitch to admit he fucked up.
3. Trump dismissed
the idea of allowing some of the tens of thousands of people whose
cities were wiped out by Dorian in the Bahamas to come to the United
States, saying that other areas of the Bahamas that weren't hit should
take them. And he did it in the most dickish way possible, by accusing
victims of possibly being "some very bad people and some very bad gang
members and some very, very bad drug dealers." So he's such a racist
pussy ass bitch that he won't allow people who've lost everything to
recover here in the United States.
4. When it was revealed
that the Air Force had been using the Trump resort in Scotland for its
crews to stay during long flights (and play golf there), as well as
using the airport right near the resort to refuel at a higher price than
a relatively nearby airbase, Trump claimed he had "nothing to do with" it, which, of course, turned out to be a lie, as it often does. He's such a pussy ass bitch that he can't even cop to something that he personally signed off on.
5. Trump gave the Public Safety Medal of Valor to six police officers
from Dayton, Ohio, in honor of them doing their duty in taking down a
mass shooter there. However, he did not invite
the mayor of Dayton, Nan Whaley, because she's a Democrat and she's
been critical of Trump. Instead, he had Republican political leaders
from Ohio present. When you can't handle having anyone around you who
doesn't kiss your ring, that's some pussy ass bitch behavior right
there.
In sum, Trump is a total pussy ass bitch. Everything he does stems from
him being a pussy ass bitch. His entire immigration policy is about
turning us into a nation of pussy ass bitches. Every time he says
something about reforming gun laws, the NRA shows him their pimp hand
and he cowers back into his natural state of being a pussy ass bitch.
And let's not even get into how much of a pussy ass bitch he is when it
comes to the dictators in North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Russia.
Oh, sure, he's the tough guy at his rallies. But then, well, he's surrounded by all the pussy ass bitches who support him.
Let's thank Chrissy Teigen for giving us a shorthand way to define
Trump. It's especially sweet that it takes the words he used to talk
about assaulting women and turns them against him.
The story that dominated the news cycle was whether John Bolton was
fired by Donald Trump or quit on his own, as he claims. The story that
is being ignored is just how scary the situation is that remains with
Mike Pompeo being the chief voice in Trump's ear related to matters of
foreign relations!
Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to the intelligence gathering
and security of the United States. The CIA exfiltrated its top spy from
Russia out of fears that Trump would out the asset and risk their life!
Donald Trump's wanton unethical & swampy behavior is not going
unnoticed! Join Jesse Dollemore as he discusses but a handful of Donald Trump's
disgraceful methods of profiting from the residency!
Donald Trump swore all day Monday that he had nothing to do with
military personnel and the Vice President staying at his Turnberry golf
course in Scotland, but it turns out this was just another lie.
And the
little failing airport that feeds Turnberry? Trump’s got a deal with
them, too, and that’s why hundreds of military flights are stopping at
the inconvenient airport in order to spend millions on fuel.
Ring of
Fire’s Farron Cousins explains what’s happening.
Fox News' Laura Ingraham waded into the waters to attempt to 'trigger
the libs.' Instead of accomplishing what she set out to, she ended up
making a colossal fool of herself!
Donald Trump’s advisers believe that he’s done a great job running the
country, but they also see his erratic behavior as sabotaging his own
reelection campaign.
His horrendous comments over the summer certainly
haven’t helped his chances, but he seems to think that’ll be what helps
him win.
Donald Trump can't handle Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and The Squad; here
is a perfect example. John Iadarola and Jayar Jackson break it down on
The Damage Report.
Donald Trump, Jr. appeared in Kentucky to host a rally for Governor Matt
Bevin, but only a handful of people actually showed up to hear the resident’s son.
According to those in attendance, there were so few
people that those who were there were told to “crowd” around the stage
so that it looked more packed for pictures.
Ring of Fire’s Farron
Cousins explains why this is a bad sign for the “Trump political
dynasty.”
'This administration is now deporting kids with cancer," said Rep. Ed
Markey, D-Mass., calling it "a new low, even for Donald Trump."
Mariela
Sanchez, of Honduras, comforts her son, Jonathan, 16, during a news
conference on Aug. 26, 2019, in Boston. The Sanchez family came to the
United States seeking treatment for Jonathan's cystic fibrosis. Elise Amendola/AP
Each
year, the U.S. gets about 1,000 applications from immigrant families in
the U.S. seeking permission to stay in the country and not face
deportation so family members can continue lifesaving medical care that
is not available in their home countries.
But
the Trump administration recently told families who were granted
permission to stay for medical care that their permission to stay has
been rescinded and they have 33 days to leave the country. The policy,
which was not publicly announced, is being applied retroactively to any
requests filed on or before Aug. 7.
In a conference call Thursday with reporters, advocates and Democrats expressed outrage over the rule.
“This is a new low even for Donald Trump,” Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said in a conference call with reporters Thursday.
Among those facing deportation is Jonathan Sanchez, 16, who has cystic fibrosis.
His
mother, Mariela Sanchez, told NBC 10 in Boston that her family arrived
in the United States in 2016 and she had recently applied for the
medical exemption. After losing a daughter to the hereditary and
incurable disease because doctors in Honduras did not diagnose it, she
knows what would have happened to her son if he was not getting the care
in the U.S.
“He would be dead,” she told the station.
The
Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a
request for comment from NBC News. In a previous statement, United
States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has said that it was
no longer considering nonmilitary requests for deferred action "to
focus agency resources on faithfully administering our nation’s lawful
immigration system."
“This administration is now deporting kids
with cancer. Perhaps that is why it was too ashamed to announce this
policy change publicly," said Markey, who has been trying to draw
national attention to the issue since it was first reported in Boston by WBUR-FM, a public radio station.
The
Trump administration is no longer considering medical deferred action
requests for immigrants. This could be a de facto death sentence for
patients. We all need to stand together against the deportation of sick,
vulnerable children.https://t.co/aWBnZk4v7U
The
change was not made public and members of the public were not given a
chance to provide comment before it went into effect. Families simply
received letters telling them they had 33 days to leave.
“They
are telling these people they need to leave on their own,” Anthony
Marino, director of immigration legal services,said on MSNBC’s “The
Rachel Maddow Show” about the families with seriously ill relatives now
facing deportation.
“I don’t know how they
expect parents to pull their children from hospital beds, disconnect
them from lifesaving treatments and go some place where they are know
they are going to die," said Marino. "But that is what they are telling
them to do.”
In Miami, attorney Milena Portillo told The Miami Herald
that families who have applied for the medical deferments include a
girl with an eye malignancy, a girl with cerebral palsy and the father
of three children — who are American citizens — who has a terminal liver
illness.
“We as a country, we are losing
our humanitarian side,” Portillo told the Herald. “We’re not reviewing
case by case, but we’re just giving a blanket ‘no’ to everyone.”
Rep.
Ayana Pressley, D-Mass., cited in the Thursday call the case of Samuel,
a five year old boy from Brazil. She said he is unable to eat solid
food and without care at Boston Children’s Hospital will not be able to
receive the nutrients he needs to live.
Sirlen
Costa, of Brazil, holds her son Samuel, 5, as her niece Danyelle Sales,
right, looks on during a news conference on Aug. 26, 2019, in Boston.
Costa brought her son to the United States seeking treatment for his
short bowel syndrome. Elise Amendola/AP
"With
this decision, again this administration has hit a new low," Pressley
said. "To be fighting for your life, imagine on top of that facing
deportation."
The American Immigration Lawyers Association
called on the USCIS to reverse the policy change. It has asked people to
contact elected leaders to change it.
A
backlash over the changes has led to confusion over which Department of
Homeland Security agency, the USCIS or Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, must enforce the new policy, as the agencies have pointed
to each other as having jurisdiction.
Medical deferrals are not the only denials imposed by the administration. USCIS told NBC News
that it applies to all other deferred action requests outside of the
military and immigrants enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrival program or DACA.
The policy change
is another in a series of actions the administration has taken that have
had direct impact on children, both who are immigrants and those who
are U.S. citizens.
The administration has taken numerous children from their parents at the border and some have yet to be reunited.
The administration changed the so-called public charge rule so that immigrants wanting a green card or asking to move to the U.S. must prove they are unlikely to ever need public assistance, such as access to health care.
“There
can be no other explanation for why you would target such a small and
vulnerable community other than if your goal was to spread fear and
hardship,” Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., said.
“This
is all in character for an administration that is separating families
and abusing children in prison camps at the border," Chu added.
Chu
has filed a bill to defund the public charge rule but said “it’s clear
that this administration will not stop looking for any opportunity to
wage war on immigrants.”
