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Asylum Seekers Win in Court as Federal Judge Rules Against Indefinite & Arbitrary Detention
A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration may not arbitrarily detain people seeking asylum. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled asylum seekers who have passed a credible fear interview should be given humanitarian parole, not indefinite detention. The suit was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights First and the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies. Eunice Lee is co-legal director at the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies.

From Separating Families to Jailing Asylum Seekers, Trump Admin Accused of Criminalizing Migration
The Department of Health and Human Services still has not disclosed how many migrant children they are holding who have been separated from their parents at the border. Last week, HHS Secretary Alex Azar said 2,047 separated minors were still in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement. But the department has refused to give updated numbers, even though the Trump administration is facing a July 10 court-imposed deadline to reunite all separated children under the age of 5 with their parents. Meanwhile, CNN is reporting the Department of Homeland Security has been taking DNA samples of immigrant children. Immigration officials have reportedly been swabbing DNA from the cheeks of children as young as 2 months old, without consent, ostensibly in a bid to later reunite children with their parents. Rights groups have condemned the move, saying it could allow the federal government to track young immigrants for the rest of their lives.

As Gov’t Says 3,000 Migrant Children Are in Custody, Detained Mothers Are Organizing to Find Their Kids
While the government struggles to reunite families who have been separated at the border under President Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy, one detained Honduran woman has been organizing mothers behind bars to help find their children. The New Yorker reports that Mabel Gonzales has carefully documented the cases of mothers who have been separated from their children at a detention facility in El Paso, Texas, where she is currently jailed. Gonzales herself was separated from her two teenage sons eight months before the Trump administration announced its “zero tolerance” policy. She records the details of other separated mothers despite not being allowed to have a notebook while detained. She then shares the information with the Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in El Paso to help separated mothers locate their children.

Concentration Camps in the U.S.: Andrea Pitzer Decries Tent Cities for Detaining Kids Without Trial
Has the Trump administration set up concentration camps in Texas for migrants? The answer is yes, according to at least one expert: Andrea Pitzer, the author of “One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps.” In one of her latest articles, Pitzer writes, “While writing a book on camp history, I defined concentration camps as the mass detention of civilians without trial, usually on the basis of race, religion, national origin, citizenship, or political party, rather than anything a given individual has done. By this definition, the new child camp established in Tornillo, Texas, is a concentration camp.”

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“What to the American Slave Is Your 4th of July?”: James Earl Jones Reads Frederick Douglass’s Historic Speech
This Fourth of July holiday special begins with the words of Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist movement. On July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, he gave one of his most famous speeches, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro.” He was addressing the Rochester Ladies Antislavery Society. This is actor James Earl Jones reading the speech during a performance of historian Howard Zinn’s acclaimed book, “Voices of a People’s History of the United States.” He was introduced by Zinn.

James Forman Jr. on “Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America”
Yale University law professor and writer James Forman Jr. won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in the general nonfiction category for his new book, “Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America.” The prize committee praised the book for its “examination of the historical roots of contemporary criminal justice in the U.S., based on vast experience and deep knowledge of the legal system, and its often-devastating consequences for citizens and communities of color.” Forman is the son of civil rights activists James Forman Sr. and Constancia Romilly, who met in the 1960s while organizing with SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

Eric has now completed all 12 signs of The Sacred Space of Self, the 2018 Spring Reading on Chiron’s transition into Aries, and Mars retrograde in Aquarius over the summer. Order today and get all 12 signs for just $99. Check out our sample videos here, and the full Guide to Chiron Transits here.

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Mexico’s Leftist President-elect AMLO Promises Sweeping Changes on Corruption, Poverty, Drug War
In a landslide, voters have elected Andrés Manuel López Obrador to be Mexico’s next president. The former mayor of Mexico City—who is known as AMLO—will become Mexico’s first leftist president in decades. On Monday, López Obrador and President Donald Trump discussed immigration and trade in a phone call. Trump called on Mexico’s president-elect to collaborate on border security and NAFTA, telling reporters, “I think he’s going to try and help us with the border. We have unbelievably bad border laws, immigration laws, the weakest in the world, laughed at by everybody in the world. And Mexico has very strong immigration laws, so they can help us.” Irma Sandoval is a professor and director of the Center for the Study of Corruption at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She is set to become comptroller general in President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s government. John Ackerman is the editor of the Mexican Law Review and a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He is also a columnist for Proceso magazine and La Jornada newspaper.

Asylum Seekers on U.S.-Mexico Border Are Waiting for Days in the Hot Sun, Told the U.S. Is “Full”
As the Trump administration accuses migrants of illegally entering the United States, Democracy Now! went to the international bridge in Brownsville, Texas, and found asylum seekers waiting for days in the hot sun after being told the United States was full. Christina Patiño Houle is director of the Rio Grande Valley Equal Voice Network. Juanita Valdez-Cox is a longtime farmworker organizer and executive director of La Unión del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), about the separation of families at the border, and attempt to interview an official at Case Padre, the Southwest Key detention center housed in a former Walmart.

Airport Worker “Heartbroken” Witnessing Waves of Migrant Children Silently Flown Around the Country
While reporting from the U.S.-Mexico border, Democracy Now! saw firsthand how migrant children separated from their parents are being sent around the country. An airport worker described children being brought in early in the morning in order to be flown out to other states, and raised concerns about how they are being treated. “The oldest I have seen is 10 or 11 years old. … The youngest is maybe 5,” he says. “They are sitting there silently…I feel kind of heartbroken. They are very, very young kids.”

Eric has now completed all 12 signs of The Sacred Space of Self, the 2018 Spring Reading on Chiron’s transition into Aries, and Mars retrograde in Aquarius over the summer. Order today and get all 12 signs for just $99. Check out our sample videos here, and the full Guide to Chiron Transits here.

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Leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador Wins Mexican Presidential Election in Landslide Victory
In Mexico, leftist politician Andrés Manuel López Obrador, known as AMLO, has claimed victory after winning Sunday’s presidential election by a landslide, vowing to transform Mexico by reducing corruption and violence. Preliminary election results show López Obrador, the former mayor of Mexico City, capturing 53 percent of the vote—more than twice that of his closest rival. His three main rival candidates have already conceded. His victory comes after the most violent electoral season in modern Mexican history. At least 136 politicians have been assassinated in Mexico since September.

“Families Belong Together”: Tens of Thousands Across the U.S. Protest Trump’s Zero Tolerance Policy
Tens of thousands of protesters marched in cities across the United States on Saturday for a “Families Belong Together” rally to demand the Trump administration comply with a federal judge’s ruling that all migrant children separated from their parents must be reunited. The Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy led to the forcible separation of more than 2,000 children from their parents, some of whom have already been deported. The protests came 24 hours after the Trump administration said in a court filing on Friday that it has the right to hold children in detention with their parents for the duration of their immigration proceedings, which can take months or years. Current law prevents children from being held for more than 20 days. Democracy Now! was in the streets of Washington, D.C., where tens of thousands rallied.

Thousands in New York March Against Family Separation, Immigration Crackdown at Border
In New York City Saturday, more than 10,000 people marched across the Brooklyn Bridge to protest the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and to demand the reunification of all migrant children separated from their parents during the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” crackdown.

“It’s a Humanitarian Crisis”: Texas Lawyer Describes Chaos, Terror of Family Separation at Border
At least 2,000 migrant children remain separated from their parents, after the families were forcibly separated by immigration officials under President Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy. A federal judge has ordered all these children must be reunited with their parents within 30 days—but immigration advocates say the administration does not have a clear plan for how to reunite the families. In McAllen, Texas, immigration lawyers are scrambling to help their clients find and reunite with their children.

Eric has now completed all 12 signs of The Sacred Space of Self, the 2018 Spring Reading on Chiron’s transition into Aries, and Mars retrograde in Aquarius over the summer. Order today and get all 12 signs for just $99. Check out our sample videos here, and the full Guide to Chiron Transits here.

Thursday’s Families Belong Together rally at the federal courthouse in Brownsville, Texas, culminated with people marching across the street to the federal courthouse, where migrants apprehended under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy have been prosecuted in mass trials.

Eric has now completed all 12 signs of The Sacred Space of Self, the 2018 Spring Reading on Chiron’s transition into Aries, and Mars retrograde in Aquarius over the summer. Order today and get all 12 signs for just $99. Check out our sample videos here, and the full Guide to Chiron Transits here.

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Justice Kennedy’s Resignation Opens Door for Far-Right Supreme Court & Overturning of Roe v. Wade
In a move that could transform the Supreme Court for decades, Justice Anthony Kennedy has announced his retirement, giving President Trump a chance to pick a second conservative on the high court. Kennedy, who was nominated by President Reagan, was widely seen as the swing vote on the nine-justice court. On Wednesday, he sided with the conservative wing of the court to deal a major blow to public-sector unions in the case of Janus v. AFSCME. He also sided this week with the majority upholding President Trump’s Muslim travel ban. But Kennedy has sided with the liberal wing of the court on a number of pivotal issues. He has been instrumental in preventing Roe v. Wade from being overturned, and he has supported same-sex marriage, affirmative action and criminal justice reform. On Wednesday, President Trump said he wants to pick a justice who will be on the court for the next 40 or 45 years.

In Janus Case, Court Issues Major Anti-Labor Ruling, Eviscerating Power of Public-Sector Unions
Justice Anthony Kennedy’s announcement came as the Supreme Court struck a major blow to organized labor Wednesday. In a 5-4 ruling written by Justice Samuel Alito, the court sided with Mark Janus, a child support specialist who argued that a state law in Illinois allowing unions to charge a fee for collective bargaining violated his First Amendment rights. The ruling nullifies so-called fair-share provisions and will leave public-sector unions deprived of millions of dollars in union dues. Mark Janus was supported by a host of right-wing groups including the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity and ALEC—the American Legislative Exchange Council.

Meet an Immigration Lawyer Trying to Unite Migrant Families While Battling the Trump Administration
On Tuesday, Federal Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego ruled all children under the age of 5 must be reunited with their parents within 14 days, and all children 5 and older must be reunited with their parents within 30 days. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar has claimed he could easily locate any of the children separated from their parents. But immigrant parents and their lawyers tell a different story.

Jennifer Harbury: Today’s Refugee Crisis Is Blowback from U.S. Dirty Wars in Central America
Human rights lawyer Jennifer Harbury has lived in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas for over 40 years and has been active in the response to the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy. Her husband, Efraín Bámaca Velásquez, was a Mayan comandante and guerrilla who was disappeared after he was captured by the Guatemalan army in the 1980s. After a long campaign, she found there was U.S. involvement in the cover-up of her husband’s murder and torture. Now she continues to work with people fleeing violence in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.

Jennifer Harbury on the Crackdown on Asylum Seekers & How U.S.-Backed Dirty Wars Fueled Drug Cartels
Extended conversation with Jennifer Harbury, a human rights lawyer, who is also the author of “Truth, Torture, and the American Way: The History and Consequences of U.S. Involvement in Torture.”

Eric has now completed all 12 signs of The Sacred Space of Self, the 2018 Spring Reading on Chiron’s transition into Aries, and Mars retrograde in Aquarius over the summer. Order today and get all 12 signs for just $99. Check out our sample videos here, and the full Guide to Chiron Transits here.

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28-Year-Old Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Wins Primary, Backing Medicare for All & Abolishing ICE
In a stunning upset and the biggest surprise of the primary season this year, 28-year-old Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez beat 10-term incumbent Representative Joe Crowley in New York in Tuesday’s Democratic primary. Crowley is the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House, and he’d outraised Ocasio-Cortez by a 10-to-1 margin. Crowley was widely viewed as a possible future House speaker. Yet Ocasio-Cortez defeated Crowley after running a progressive grassroots campaign advocating for “Medicare for All” and the abolition of ICE, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Ocasio-Cortez speaks to Democracy Now! about her historic campaign.

Linda Sarsour: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is the Hope We Have Been Waiting For
Tuesday was a big day for progressive Democrats. In New York, former Bernie Sanders organizer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated Rep. Joe Crowley. In Maryland, former NAACP chair Benjamin Jealous won the Democratic gubernatorial primary.

SCOTUS Backs Muslim Travel Ban; Critics Liken It to Decisions on Segregation & Japanese Internment
In a series of extraordinary legal decisions Tuesday, the Supreme Court has upheld President Trump’s so-called Muslim travel ban, and a federal judge in San Diego has ruled immigration officials must stop separating immigrant children from their parents at the border and must reunite all parents and children within 30 days. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 to uphold Trump’s travel ban, which prohibits people from entering the United States from five majority-Muslim countries—Iran, Libya, Yemen, Syria and Somalia—as well as people from North Korea and some government officials from Venezuela. In a scathing dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor condemned the ban as “harrowing” and said it was “motivated by hostility and animus toward the Muslim faith.” She also said the decision to uphold the ban involved “ignoring the facts, misconstruing our legal precedent and turning a blind eye to the pain and suffering the proclamation inflicts upon countless families and individuals, many of whom are United States citizens.” After the ruling was announced, protesters gathered outside the Supreme Court to condemn the decision.

Federal Judge Orders U.S. to Reunite Migrant Children with Their Families After Separation at Border
Hours after the Supreme Court issued its ruling upholding the Muslim travel ban, a federal judge in San Diego ruled immigration officials must stop separating immigrant children from their parents at the border and that migrant children already separated must be reunited with their parents. The ruling says all children under the age of 5 must be reunited with their parents within 14 days, and all children 5 and older must be reunited with their parents within 30 days. The ruling does not require the Trump administration to stop prosecuting people for crossing the border. More than 2,000 children remain separated from their parents, jailed in detention centers across the country. Immigration advocates are warning the Trump administration has no clear plan for how to reunite them with their parents, some of whom have already been deported.

A Critic of Neoliberalism & Drug War, Andrés Manuel López Obrador Poised to Win Mexico’s Presidency
Left-leaning presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador appears poised to win Sunday’s presidential election. López Obrador, also known as AMLO because of his initials, emerged as the clear front-runner since jumping into the race. This is the third presidential run for López Obrador, who was the mayor of Mexico City from 2000 to 2005. López Obrador has vowed to wean Mexico off U.S. agricultural imports, increase aid for students and the elderly, and consider amnesty for drug war criminals.

Eric has now completed all 12 signs of The Sacred Space of Self, the 2018 Spring Reading on Chiron’s transition into Aries, and Mars retrograde in Aquarius over the summer. Order today and get all 12 signs for just $99. Check out our sample videos here, and the full Guide to Chiron Transits here.

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“Things That Make White People Uncomfortable”: NFL’s Michael Bennett on Kneeling for Racial Justice
Over the past two seasons, dozens of National Football League players have knelt during the national anthem to protest police shootings of black teenagers and men like Antwon Rose, a 17-year-old unarmed African-American teenager who was shot dead by East Pittsburgh police last week. The NFL’s on-field protests began in August 2016 when quarterback Colin Kaepernick refused to stand for the anthem to protest racism and police brutality. The National Football League announced last month that it will fine teams if players refuse to stand for the national anthem before games. Under the new rules adopted by the league’s 32 owners, players will be allowed to stay in the locker room during the anthem. NFL three-time Pro Bowler and longtime activist Michael Bennett has been part of a movement, led by former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, protesting police shootings of unarmed black men. Bennett was recently traded to the Super Bowl champions Philadelphia Eagles—the same team President Trump recently disinvited to the White House. He is the author of a new book, “Things That Make White People Uncomfortable.”

Michael Bennett Speaks Out About Trauma of Growing Up Black in America & His “Emmett Till Moment”
When Michael Bennett was 12 years old, James Byrd was lynched in Jasper, Texas. The African-American man was brutally murdered by white supremacists who chained him to the back of their truck by his ankles and dragged him for more than three miles along the road. By the time the men untied his body from the back of the truck, Byrd’s head and right arm had been severed. Michael Bennett calls this killing his “Emmett Till moment.”

Michael Bennett on Concussions & Brain Injuries in NFL: “Fans Need to Stop Dehumanizing Players”
More than 280 players in the National Football League sustained concussions in the 2017 season. That’s an average of 12 per week. A recent study of the brains of 111 deceased NFL players found all but one were found to have CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy. CTE is a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated blows to the head. NFL three-time Pro Bowler and longtime activist Michael Bennett speaks about CTE, the risks athletes take while playing football and how fans need to humanize the players they love to watch on screen.

Psychologist: Separating Children at the Border Creates Trauma Passed Down Through Generations
More than 2,000 migrant children remain separated from their parents, jailed in detention centers across the country. The Washington Post reports that U.S. authorities are collecting mug shots of the detained minors, some showing the children in tears. Immigrant children jailed in a converted Walmart in Texas are being forced to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in English each morning. At some of the facilities, the children are counted in “prison-style” head counts. In some cases, parents have already been deported, while their children remain in United States custody.

Eric has now completed all 12 signs of The Sacred Space of Self, the 2018 Spring Reading on Chiron’s transition into Aries, and Mars retrograde in Aquarius over the summer. Order today and get all 12 signs for just $99. Check out our sample videos here, and the full Guide to Chiron Transits here.