The Muslims of Victoria, a small city in southern Texas, have experienced the healing power of kindness in the face of devastating cruelty. Their mosque, the Victoria Islamic Center, was destroyed by an arsonist on January 28, the morning after President Trump issued his original executive order banning immigration from seven predominantly Muslim nations. While the investigation into the fire continues, officials are not yet able to call the arson a hate crime. [Read more…]
What Makes America Great
U.S. Internment Camp for Japanese-Americans.
Seventy-five years ago, on February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt authorized the deportation and incarceration of Japanese-Americans with Executive Order 9066. This power was used to declare that all people of Japanese ancestry were excluded from the entire West Coast, including all of California and much of Oregon, Washington and Arizona. Nearly 130,000 mainland Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated from their West Coast homes during the spring of 1942. No civilians were found to be agents of espionage.
There has been a spike in hate speech since the November elections, which has liberated people to say in public what was not acceptable before the campaign. [Read more…]
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman Responds to Ruling by Ninth Circuit
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman
Letter to the Editor on the Immigration Ban
Marta and Henry Fuchs sent this letter to The Philadelphia Jewish Voice and to the editors of other newspapers, expressing their response to President Trump’s executive order on immigration.
To the Editor:
As children of Holocaust survivors and refugees from the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, we strongly oppose the administration’s ban on immigrants. [Read more…]
A Jewish Response to the Ban on Immigration
Seven days into the new administration, the new president issued an executive order against refugees, immigrants and Muslims. It was ironic that this action took place on Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Police facing demonstrators at protest at Philadelphia International Airport.
Photo by Hannah Lee.
Local Lawyers Defend Stranded Muslim Travelers
Attorney Rulla Moor offering her services at Philadelphia International Airport. Screenshot from 6 ABC News video.
The Legal Intelligencer reports that lawyers from the firms Langer, Grogan & Diver and Kairys, Rudovsky, Messing & Feinberg teamed up with HIAS and the American Civil Liberties Union to form two groups. One group went to the airport to try to help those who were detained, unable to enter the country. A second group went to work on court papers, assisted by lawyers from the immigration law firms of Landau, Hess, Simon & Choi and Green and Spiegel.
By Sunday, this volunteer effort succeeded in ending the detentions. Fully resolving the issues, however, will require substantial litigation, in which these lawyers will play a significant role.
Refugee Ban With Holocaust Parallels
“An America which turns away refugees is not America. We forgot that during the Holocaust. Let’s never again forget who we are,” writes Mark Hetfield, president and CEO of HIAS. Hetfiled was one of many to point out a compelling coincidence: President Trump issued his controversial refugee ban on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. [Read more…]
“You’re Fired!” Attorney General Sally Yates Removed for not Defending Immigrant Ban
Acting Attorney General Sally Yates
President Trump has fired the head of the Justice Department for the second time in ten days. Acting Attorney General Sally Yates was fired for not supporting the Immigrant Ban. Earlier in the day she had sent a letter to her staff directing them not to defend in court the ban on immigrants.
The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel had approved Trump’s immigration ban before he issued it on Friday. However Yates wrote that as head of the Justice Department she had a broader responsibility “to always seek justice and stand for what is right.” She went on to state that she is not convinced that the ban is lawful. [Read more…]
Jewish and Civil Rights Organizations Respond to Trump’s Immigration Ban
On Friday, January 27, President Trump signed an executive order on immigration that ignited protests and condemnation from individuals and organizations around the country. [Read more…]