May 29, 2018
“A Transgender Woman Who Was Part of the Migrant Caravan Has Died in ICE Custody” (Buzzfeed)- “Roxsana Hernandez, 33, died in the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at a hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She had been taken to another hospital in New Mexico more than a week earlier with symptoms of pneumonia, dehydration, and complications associated with HIV. Hernandez asked for asylum at the San Ysidro port of entry on May 9, according to Pueblo Sin Fronteras, which organized the caravan. The group said she was first detained by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in holding cells known as “iceboxes” because of how cold they are.”
“Hidden Horrors of ‘Zero Tolerance’ — Mass Trials and Children Taken From Their Parents” (The Intercept)- “Federal Magistrate Judge Ronald G. Morgan is in his 60s, with a bright-pink face and a crisp, friendly manner — though lately he has been making disconcerting little mistakes in court. He has spent eight years on the bench in Brownsville, a small Texas city on the U.S.-Mexico border. Morgan knows how to run a court smoothly, but during a morning session I attended in early May, he announced that he’d just dealt with 35 defendants — all at one time — when the actual number was 40. And after the proceedings, he forgot to pronounce their guilt. Marshals had already led them out, so Morgan sheepishly had to call the 40 defendants back to the courtroom to correct his error. These days, he seems distracted and troubled.”
May 26, 2018
“Witness recounts fatal Border Patrol shooting of young Guatemalan woman in Texas“- (LAT)- “Marta Martinez was in her bedroom about a mile from the border in south Texas onWednesday, preparing to attend her son’s end-of-year award ceremony at school, when she heard a gunshot. She told her children to stay inside and rushed out to see a Border Patrol agent with a gun in his hand. It was not unusual for Martinez, 39, born and raised in the area, to see agents chasing migrants who had crossed the border illegally. But this time, she said, she confronted a gruesome scene: outside her room, the body of a young woman lay bleeding on the ground, shot in the head.”
May 23, 2018
“The Border Patrol Was Monstrous Under Obama. Imagine How Bad It Is Under Trump” (ACLU)- “On a December morning, Border Patrol agents confronted a 15-year-old high school student named Jahveel Ocampo at a rest stop in California while she and her friends were on their way to the mountains to see the winter’s first snow. Jahveel was a young child when she came to the United States from Mexico with her parents, and she grew up undocumented in southern California. She was a mother to a 2-year-old child, who was a U.S. citizen.”
May 17, 2018
“Sessions Moves to Curb Immigration Judges’ Authority” (NPR)– “Attorney General Jeff Sessions has ordered the nation’s immigration judges to end their practice of temporarily removing cases from their dockets without issuing decisions.”
