Patricia Spears Jones: an American haze
Trumpeter lilies argue the loudest scents — you could wrap
a fiesta with that smell
Julia Paley: The End of Asylum?
Trump’s asylum ban and kangaroo tent courts threaten to destroy a pillar of international humanitarian law. What can we do?
Abby Zimet: People Have The Power
For a break from the madness and slime, here’s ever-cool Patti Smith joining the fabulous Choir! Choir! Choir! who transform crowds of strangers into a joyful, impromptu, powerful community in the name of “leveraging music as a global language.”
Rebecca Gordon: How the U.S. Created the Central American Immigration Crisis
Donald Trump would rather demonize desperate people than deploy the resources needed to attend to their claims in a timely way — or in any way at all.
Karen J. Greenberg: No Fairy Tale
The Trump administration has taken a giant step in trying to abolish the very idea of human rights as a part of the country’s identity.
Harry Blain: American Concentration Camps
When human beings are framed as a national security threat, barbed wire is the next logical step. But unlike during the Japanese internment, today there’s high-level political resistance.
Aura Bogado: The US is quietly opening shelters for babies and young kids. One has 12 children and no mothers.
One of the infants is just 2 weeks old and was born in the United States, making the child a U.S. citizen in the custody of the federal refugee agency.
Video: The Office of Missing Children
Nearly 15,000 unaccompanied minors currently are detained in the U.S.; they’re held in places ranging from tent cities to trailers and shelters, some of which have a history of mistreatment, including forced drugging, sexual assault and physical abuse.
Video: Willie Nelson’s new song “Immigrant Eyes” (with lyrics)
It turns out that Oscar Alberto Martínez and his 23-month-old daughter Angie Valeria were just two of dozens who’ve died in the Rio Grande this year. In this spirit, here’s Willie Nelson’s new song celebrating immigrants.
Abby Zimet: Never Again. Still. Really.
“When Jews say never again,” said one marcher, “We fucking mean it.”
Amy Goodman, Denis Moynihan: Abolish Migrant Child Jails Now
Debating the fate of jailed migrant children is important, but the life-and-death crisis that they have been thrown into demands immediate action.
Abby Zimet: A Celebration of the American Citizen
At 448 dense pages of legalese, the Mueller Report has swiftly, improbably become a sort of touchstone of the sordid times.
A.C. Thompson: Over 200 Allegations of Abuse of Migrant Children; DHS protecting agents from prosecution
A federal judge found the department’s own records disturbing and ordered the names of the accused agents made public. Now, DHS has taken its fight against doing so to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
John Samuel Tieman: By the Rivers of Babylon
if we forget these freedoms
let our tongues and lips wither
let our lyrics turn to twitter rants
