In a major victory for civil rights advocates, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has unanimously refused to reinstate Donald Trump’s executive order that banned people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States and sparked nationwide protests. The judges ruled that the administration “has pointed to no evidence that any alien from any of the countries named in the order has perpetrated a terrorist attack in the United States.” Trump has vowed to appeal the case, possibly to the U.S. Supreme Court. Vincent Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, comments. “It is the veracity of the administration that is at stake,” Warren says.
Also on today’s show:
Trump Launches “Blue Lives Matter Regime” with Three New Executive Orders on Law Enforcement
On Thursday, President Trump signed three new executive orders addressing crime and immigration. One seeks to increase penalties on those found guilty of assaulting police officers. A second order directs law enforcement agencies to increase intelligence sharing while going after drug cartels. A third order directs Attorney General Sessions to prioritize fighting “illegal immigration” alongside drug trafficking and violent crime. This is “the beginnings of what we are calling a blue lives matter regime,” explains Vincent Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
ICE Raids Speed into Overdrive: Advocates Say Obama’s Deportations Reaching “100 MPH” Under Trump
Aarón Rayos, the husband of a mother of two U.S.-born children who is at the center of an immigration fight in Arizona and has been deported to Mexico, talks to the team. Guadalupe García de Rayos was arrested and detained Wednesday during a routine check-in with immigration officials. She had been living in the United States for the past 21 years, but had been arrested in 2008 during a raid on a water park in Maricopa County and convicted of a felony for using forged documents in order to get a job. Advocates say her arrest signals a clear shift by the Trump administration to deport people considered a “low priority” for removal under President Obama. We also speak with Francisca Porchas, organizing director of Puente Arizona.
In Real Bowling Green Massacre, a White Supremacist Planned Attack Against African Americans & Jews
As the nonexistent terrorist attack manufactured by Donald Trump’s counselor Kellyanne Conway makes headlines, we look at an actual threat by an extremist in Bowling Green, Ohio. In 2012, an FBI raid uncovered a full arsenal of assault rifles, firearms, body armor and ammunition amassed by the suspect, who prosecutors later determined was planning to carry out mass killings. But the suspect is not a radical Muslim. He is white supremacist Richard Schmidt, who federal authorities say was planning targeted attacks on African Americans and Jews. Investigators found a list of names and addresses of people to be assassinated, including the leaders of NAACP chapters in Michigan and Ohio. Schmidt was sentenced to less than six years in prison after a federal judge said prosecutors had failed to adequately establish that he was a political terrorist. He is scheduled for release in February 2018. His case isn’t the only one involving terror threats by a white supremacist that received little coverage by mainstream media. On Monday, the trial of Christian minister Robert Doggart began in Tennessee federal district court. Undercover FBI agents allege that Doggart was plotting to travel to upstate New York to kill Muslims there, using explosives, an M-4 assault rifle and a machete. According to a federal investigation, Doggart saw himself as a religious “warrior” and wanted to kill Muslims to show his commitment to his Christian god.
Web Exclusive: See the Signs of Terror: Journalists Call on Trump to Condemn White Supremacist-Led Attacks & Plots
As the nonexistent terrorist attack manufactured by Donald Trump’s counselor Kellyanne Conway makes headlines, this web exclusive features reporters covering an actual threat from a white extremist in Bowling Green, Ohio, and the ongoing trial of a Christian minister in Tennessee for plotting to travel to upstate New York to kill Muslims there, using explosives, an M-4 assault rifle and a machete.
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