Immigration

President Trump considering pardon for Crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio

by

The Washington Post reports,  Trump says he’s considering pardon for Joe Arpaio:

President Trump told Fox News he is “seriously considering” issuing a pardon for former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted last month of criminal contempt for ignoring a judge’s order to stop detaining people because he merely suspected them of being undocumented immigrants.

Trump told the news outlet during a conversation in Bedminster, N.J., that the pardon could come quickly, perhaps in a matter of days. The news outlet reported the conversation on its website Monday.

“I might do it right away, maybe early this week. I am seriously thinking about it,” Trump said, according to Fox News. He said Arpaio was a “great American patriot” who had “done a lot in the fight against illegal immigration.”

Arpaio was also “America’s most corrupt sheriff” who abused the powers of his office and who demonstrated contempt for the court, traits that Donald Trump shares in common with his friend.

Read more

White nationalists making immigration policy in Trump White House

by

Donald Trump played to nativist and racist fears in the 2016 campaign by focusing heavily on illegal immigration: “I will build a great, great wall on our southern border and I will make Mexico pay for that wall.”

However, Trump’s alt-right campaign advisors, Steven Bannon and Stephen Miller, are also opposed to legal immigration.

On Wednesday, Trump, GOP senators reintroduced a bill to slash legal immigration levels (this is a modified version of a bill submitted in February that went nowhere):

Trump appeared with Republican Sens. Tom Cotton (Ark.) and David Perdue (Ga.) at the White House to unveil a modified version of a bill the senators first introduced in February to create a “merit-based” immigration system that would put a greater emphasis on the job skills of foreigners over their ties to family in the United States.

The legislation seeks to reduce the annual distribution of green cards awarding permanent legal residence to just over 500,000 from more than 1 million.

The bill also gives a preference to those who speak English.

The bill faces dim prospects in the Senate, where Republicans hold a narrow majority and would have difficulty reaching 60 votes to fend off a filibuster. But the president’s event came as the White House sought to move past a major political defeat on repealing the Affordable Care Act by pivoting to issues that resonate with Trump’s core supporters.

White House alt-right advisor Stephen Miller attended the White House press briefing with Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to explain and defend the bill, and wound up being the story with his outrageous behavior.

Read more

Justice finally comes for crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio

by

The wheels of justice turn slowly, and it often comes too late, but justice finally came for “America’s most corrupt sheriff” crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio on Monday. Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio found guilty of criminal contempt of court:

Former Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s own words were the linchpin in the case against him, his quotes cited more than 20 times in a federal judge’s ruling that found him guilty of criminal contempt of court.

In a verdict filed Monday morning, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton said evidence demonstrated Arpaio’s “flagrant disregard” for another federal judge’s order that halted his signature immigration round-ups.

The sentencing phase will begin Oct. 5. Arpaio, 85, faces up to six months in confinement, a sentence equivalent to that of a misdemeanor.

Read more

SCOTUS to hear Trump’s Muslim travel ban appeal; ban to partially go into effect

by

The U.S. Supreme Court gave the Trump administration the go-ahead Monday to begin enforcing part of the president’s executive order restricting travel from six predominately Muslim countries.

Trump, in a statement called the court’s action “a clear victory for our national security.”

“Today’s ruling allows me to use an important tool for protecting our Nation’s homeland,” Trump said in the statement. “I am also particularly gratified that the Supreme Court’s decision was 9-0.”

This is not at all true. This is “alternative facts” in Trump World’s alternative reality, in which Dear Leader must always be winning.

While the full Court said it would hear the case in the fall, six of the justices, including Chief Justice John Roberts, kept part of the injunction from lower courts in place while allowing only part of the 90-day halt on new visas from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen to go into effect.

The Court asked the parties to brief the issue whether this case is moot as of June 14, the expiration of the original executive order. And because this case will not be heard until October and likely decided sometime later, the Court has set up this case to be dismissed as moot, so that it can avoid rendering a decision on the merits this fall.

Read more

Will justice finally arrive for Crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio?

by

“The most corrupt sheriff in America” finally lost his elected office last Novenber, and now justice may finally arrive for Crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio. Criminal contempt trial of former Sheriff Joe Arpaio set to open Monday:

Joe Arpaio — the man, not the lawman — is the defendant in a federal criminal trial scheduled to begin in Phoenix on Monday.

Unlike before, efforts by his attorneys to delay, dismiss or otherwise adjust the trial this time around have not been successful so far.

The court proceeding is scheduled to last for two weeks, with prosecutors from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section.

The former Maricopa County sheriff is accused of defying a federal judge’s orders that barred Arpaio from enforcing federal immigration law.

The alleged criminal contempt of court happened over a period of 18 months in 2012 and 2013, when Arpaio was still in office.

Arpaio already has been found in civil contempt for the same case. Under the law, the difference between civil and criminal contempt is intent — whether the defendant willfully or unintentionally violated a judge’s order.

Read more