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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
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Stranded in Tijuana, a group of asylum seekers from Cameroon, Uganda and Ethiopia banded together in a shared hotel room. There, they would wait out Trump administration policies that had blocked their ability to request protection in the United States amid the pandemic. The group has been harassed, threatened and extorted by Mexican officials since their arrival in the border city, an Ethiopian man told human rights researchers. ... Then, in November, a new hotel owner kicked the group out onto the streets, saying that he doesn’t like Africans, the asylum seeker said. The group is among many thousands of asylum seekers stuck in Tijuana and along the U.S.-Mexico border who are struggling to survive as their temporary housing options whither and orders blocking their entry to the United States stretch out indefinitely. Their plight is just one of the examples laid out in a report published by Human Rights First in December that looked at the ways asylum seekers have been increasingly harmed by U.S. immigration policies in 2020, especially those put into place following the arrival of the pandemic.
A growing number of Republican lawmakers are joining President Donald Trump’s extraordinary effort to overturn the election, pledging to reject the results when Congress meets next week to count the Electoral College votes and certify President-elect Joe Biden’s win.Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas on Saturday announced a coalition of 11 senators and senators-elect who have been enlisted for Trump’s effort to subvert the will of American voters. This follows the declaration from Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, who was the first to buck Senate leadership by saying he would join with House Republicans in objecting to the state tallies during Wednesday’s joint session of Congress. Trump’s refusal to accept his defeat is tearing the party apart as Republicans are forced to make consequential choices that will set the contours of the post-Trump era. Hawley and Cruz are both among potential 2024 presidential contenders.
Pedro Pierluisi vowed to achieve statehood for Puerto Rico and fight against poverty, corruption and COVID-19 after he was sworn in Saturday as the U.S. territory’s new governor. Pierluisi, a Democrat who previously served as Puerto Rico’s representative in Congress for eight years, also promised to prioritize education, lift the government out of bankruptcy and alleviate a deep economic crisis as leader of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party.
Vandals went on a spray-painting spree at the homes of Congress’ top two leaders in separate graffiti blitzes that appeared to target Capitol Hill’s failure to send out fatter stimulus checks. The Louisville, Kentucky, home of GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and San Francisco residence of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were both splatted with angry messaging — and at Pelosi’s home, a severed pig’s head, according to reports.
More than a million immigrants in the United States who have applied for U.S. citizenship through naturalization, adjustment of status and other benefits have been waiting for their biometric services appointment at a local Application Support Center (ASC) to provide their fingerprints, photograph and/or signature. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, in-person services were canceled at Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) offices between March and June of last year, and there have been subsequent restrictions after opening to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Thousands of biometrics appointments were canceled and USCIS said it would reschedule them once it normalized operations. But many applicants have yet to receive their rescheduled or new appointment, and their immigration processes have thus been delayed. This week, for the first time, U.S. immigration authorities provided an update about the situation at Application Support Centers.
Georgia’s Senate run-off elections arrive Tuesday after a whirlwind two-month campaign that smashed fundraising records, inspired historic voter turnout, bombarded the airwaves with ads, and loomed over congressional negotiations on major spending legislation. The stakes may never have been higher in such a narrow election. Amid President Donald Trump’s incessant attacks on Georgia’s election integrity, four people are seeking two seats that will determine which party controls the Senate. For President-elect Joe Biden, nothing less than his entire agenda is on the table.
East Texas congressman Louie Gohmert suggested that “violence in the streets” may be the only remaining option to block Joe Biden from becoming president, after a federal judge rejected his lawsuit aiming to force Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election. U.S. District Judge Jeremy Kernodle, a Trump appointee from Gohmert’s hometown of Tyler, threw out the lawsuit late Friday, ruling that he and other plaintiffs — including the GOP chairwoman in Arizona and that state’s defeated slate of Republican electors — lack standing. Late Friday on Newsmax, Gohmert said he had sought redress in court “so that you didn’t have to have riots and violence in the street.” “Bottom line is, the court is saying, ‘We’re not going to touch this, you have no remedy,’” Gohmert said. “Basically, in effect, the ruling would be that you’ve got to go to the streets and be as violent as antifa and BLM.” It’s not the first time Gohmert — a former state trial court judge who just won his ninth term in Congress — has expressed admiration for the use of violence to overturn an election.
Nearly a dozen Republican senators signaled Saturday that they will challenge the electoral college results next week, a last measure of their full devotion to a defeated president that has frustrated Senate GOP leaders and exacerbated concerns about the health of American democracy. Eleven current and soon-to-be lawmakers – almost a quarter of the incoming Senate GOP conference – plan to vote Wednesday against certifying the results from swing states that propelled President-elect Joe Biden to victory.
As communities across the country feel the pain of a surge in coronavirus cases, funeral homes in the hot spot of Southern California say they must turn away grieving families as they run out of space for the bodies piling up. The head of the state funeral directors association says mortuaries are being inundated as the United States nears a grim tally of 350,000 COVID-19 deaths. More than 20 million people in the country have been infected, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The news came during a hopeful time on the largest Native American reservation. Daily coronavirus cases were in the single digits, down from a springtime peak of 238 that made the Navajo Nation a U.S. hot spot. The tribe, wanting to ensure a COVID-19 vaccine would be effective for its people, said it would welcome Pfizer clinical trials on its reservation spanning Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Right away, tribal members accused their government of allowing them to be guinea pigs, pointing to painful times in the past when Native Americans didn’t consent to medical testing or weren’t fully informed about procedures.
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from The Western Journal
RIGHT BIAS, MIXED, Media/News Company in Phoenix, Arizona
RIGHT BIAS, MIXED, Media/News Company in Phoenix, Arizona
Eleven Republican senators led by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz announced Saturday that they would object to the certification of states’ Electoral College votes when Congress meets on Jan. 6. “Congress should immediately appoint an Electoral Commission, with full investigatory and fact-finding authority, to conduct an emergency 10-day audit of the election returns in the disputed states,” the senators said in a statement.
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