politics of immigration

Mexico

Mexico launches ‘Operativo Frontera Norte’

Mexico has launched a massive deployment of 10,000 troops to cities and towns on the border with the United States. Videos and photos posted on social media by Mexico’s Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA) showed military and National Guard troops lined up boarding transport planes and rows of army trucks rolling out from bases in Mexico City, Tlaxcala and other cities. The response—dubbed “Operativo Frontera Norte”—is part of an agreement reached between US President Donald Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum postponing trade tariff threats for a month. (Photo: SEDENA via Peninsula360)

North America

Podcast: Is it fascism yet?

In Episode 263 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg deconstructs the moves by the unconstitutional Trump regime to consolidate a dictatorship over the United States—attempting to seize autocratic control over the bureaucracy, and (in a case of fascist pseudo-anti-fascism) weaponizing concern with anti-Semitism to suppress free speech while institutionalizing indifference to (and consciously enflaming) all other forms of racism. And this as Elon Musk (a private-sector oligarch given extra-legal power over government functions) tells a rally of the Nazi-adjacent Alternative für Deutschland that Germany has “too much of a focus on past guilt.” It took Hitler mere weeks to establish a dictatorship after coming to power, whereas with Mussolini it took some three years. We shall soon find out how long it will take in the United States—unless the country can find the wherewithal to resist. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Photo via CEPR)

Watching the Shadows

Trump orders expansion of Gitmo migrant facility

President Trump has ordered the construction of a 30,000-bed facility to hold migrants at the notorious US naval facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as part of his mass deportation campaign. The US base has been used to house terrorism suspects since 2002, becoming synonymous with torture and unlawful imprisonment. The US has secretively detained refugees and migrants intercepted at sea at Guantánamo Bay for decades, but the facility has not previously been used for people apprehended on US soil or at this scale. (Photo: Spc. Cody Black/WikiMedia via Jurist)

North America

Quakers sue to stop ICE raids on houses of worship

Five Quaker groups filed a lawsuit to stop immigration agents from conducting raids on houses of worship. The complaint alleges that the new Department of Homeland Security policy that allows Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to conduct searches and arrests at schools and religious institutions violates the First Amendment to the US Constitution. The lawsuit claims that the new policy has forced certain congregations to cancel worship services due to fear of ICE enforcement. On the first week of the new policy’s implementation, a church in Georgia said it had to lock its doors to prevent ICE agents from conducting an arrest in the middle of a service. Pacifism is an integral component of Quaker beliefs, and the lawsuit asserts that the possible presence of armed agents in Quaker meeting houses is a fundamental violation of “a founding principle of their faith.” (Photo: Wikipedia)

North Africa

Italy arrests, releases Libyan war crimes suspect

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in a video released on social media that she has been placed under investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office over her government’s surprise release of a Libyan national who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.Italian police arrested Osama Najim, the head of the Tripoli government’s Judicial Police, in the city of Turin. Najim, popularly known as “Almasri,” serves as director of a network of detention centers where systematic abuse and human rights violations have been repeatedly documented in a reports by the UN Human Rights Council. Mediterranea Saving HumansNGO stated that the arrest “came after years of complaints and testimonies from victims, which were sent to the International Criminal Court.” Yet Najim was released after just one day, and arrived at Tripoli International Airport. Queried about the release, Italian authorities cited “procedural irregularities” in his arrest. However, media commentators have widely pointed to Rome’s arrangements with Tripoli to block migrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean to reach Italy’s shores. (Map: Perry-Castañeda Library)

North America

Trump rushes out hardline migration agenda

During his first days back in office, Donald Trump rapidly started implementing his hardline migration agenda, including by declaring a state of emergency at the US southern border. The move allows his administration to access billions of dollars to expand the building of a border wall and to deploy the military and national guard to the area. Around 1,500 active duty soldiers are already being deployed. Trump also reinstated the controversial “Remain in Mexico” program from his first administration. This policy, which requires people to wait for asylum appointments in Mexico, helped to create a now-perennial humanitarian crisis in northern Mexico. The Trump administration has also shut down CBP One—a cell phone app for scheduling asylum appointments—leaving thousands of people stranded in Mexico, and suspended the US refugee resettlement program, as well as cancelling travel plans for refugees who had already been approved to enter the country. Trump’s promised mass deportation of millions of undocumented people has yet to get underway, but his administration has begun laying the groundwork for expanded immigration raids—potentially including on schools, churches, and hospitals—and has threatened to prosecute any local officials who don’t comply. (Image: White House)

North America

AGs challenge Trump bid to end birthright citizenship

Attorneys general from 22 states filed a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship. Central to the lawsuit is the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, which states that “[a]ll persons born or naturalized in the United States…are citizens of the United States…” The clause was last interpreted by the Supreme Court in 1898 in United States v. Wong Kim Ark as granting citizenship to all babies born in the country. The coalition of attorneys general, representing states including Massachusetts, Illinois and New York, argue in the lawsuit that Trump’s executive order undermines constitutional principles and threatens to create a class of stateless individuals born within the United States. (Image: PressBooks)

Afghanistan

Pakistan court halts forced repatriation of Afghan musicians

The Peshawar High Court issued an interim order preventing the forced repatriation of around 150 Afghan singers and musicians who fled to Pakistan after the Taliban’s return to power in 2021. Justice Wiqar Ahmad, who presided over the case, instructed the government to issue a decision on the musicians’ asylum applications within two months. The court said that if the asylum claims are not resolved within 60 days, the interior ministry should grant permission for the petitioners to stay for a period sufficient to reach a final decision. The court also allowed the musicians to apply to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to process their asylum claims. The musicians filed their petition last year, citing fears of persecution under the Taliban, who banned music and suppressed artists during their first period in power from 1996 to 2001. (Photo: VOA via Wikimedia Commons)

North America

Podcast: nullify the election! II

As the Trump team’s plans fall into place for mass detention of millions of undocumented immigrants—perhaps even naturalized citizens—and establishment of a concentration camp system, invocation of the Insurrection Act to mobilize the army for the round-ups has been broached. Sending National Guard troops from red states into blue states to carry out round-ups and put down protests—over the objections of governors who have refused to cooperate—could portend civil war. There is still time to invoke the 14th Amendment to bar Trump from the presidency—just as Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, indicted for leading a Trump-style attempted auto-golpe in 2022, has been barred from office. And just as the Congressional Black Caucus sought to bar Dubya Bush from office over considerably lesser matters on Jan. 6, 2001. In Episode 253 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg continues to make the case for mass pressure to demand nullification of the election. (Image: CounterVortex)

Africa

Sudan war drives continued refugee exodus: UN

The war in Sudan is driving continued refugee flight, leading to a deepening humanitarian crisis in the greater region, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported. The agency said that more than 3 million people have fled Sudan, seeking safety in neighboring countries, since the war began in April 2023. The refugees are faced with challenges of food shortages and continued rights violations such as killings, sexual violence and looting, as well as natural disasters such as flooding. In October, around 60,000 Sudanese escaping the escalated fighting in Darfur arrived in Chad, which is facing a resource shortage due to its increasing refugee population, now at over 1.1 million. The refugees there face an overwhelmed healthcare system, scarce food, and no education for their children who have already been out of school for two years. (Map: PCL)

North America

Mandate for fascism, strategy for resistance

Donald Trump has for the first time won the popular vote, and now around an openly fascist program, starting with plans for mass detention of millions of undocumented immigrants. While there are signs of an emergent resistance, there are also undeniable signs of a left-MAGA convergence around a mutual embrace of authoritarian populism, exploiting disaffection from Biden-Harris’ criminal support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. In Episode 251of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg stakes stock of this grim juncture for the United States and the world. We also revive our call from 2016 for electoral nullification—the electors refusing to seat Trump. The New York judge in Trump’s “hush money” case must immediately impose the maximum sentence of four years in prison, bringing on the needed constitutional crisis, and the Electoral College must do what it was designed to do under the Constitution: bar a dangerous demagogue from the presidency. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Photo: Gage Skidmore via Flickr)

The Caribbean

Killings continue to escalate in Haiti

New UN data shows that more than 1,200 people were killed and 522 wounded in Haiti between July and September. This represents a 27% increase in casualties compared to the second quarter. Figures could get even worse, as a new wave of coordinated gang attacks isterrorizing areas that had previously been spared. About 10,000 people were forced to flee parts of Port-au-Prince, while nearly 22,000 more were displaced in Arcahaie, north of the capital. Gangs also fired at a UN helicopter used by the World Food Program to deliver aid, while a Catholic charity’s hospital clinic was vandalized and set on fire. A new UN report projects that 5.4 million Haitians—nearly half the population—will face crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity by February 2025. Despite the ever-rising violence, the US government continues its deportation flights. (Photo: El Soberano)