Thursday, Apr 17th
Last update06:11:56 AM GMT
Human Rights Glance
Trump administration officials emphasized that Abrego Garcia, who was sent to a notorious gang prison in El Salvador, was a citizen of that country and that the U.S. has no say in his future. And Bukele, who has been a vital partner for the Trump administration in its deportation efforts, said he does not “have the power to return him to the United States.”
The Supreme Court has ruled that the Trump administration must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return.
Rain fell in sheets outside the unassuming Abingdon, Va., federal courthouse. Inside the brick building, set along a historic street, an eight day trial was reaching its conclusion. A years-long saga was finally coming to an end early Thursday afternoon.
In courtroom one, the two sides waited for the jury to return with their decision: Are five former corrections officers at Virginia's Marion Correctional Treatment Center liable for the death of Charles Givens, an inmate with health problems and severe mental disabilities?
Givens was found dead in his cell at Marion on Feb. 5, 2022. A year later, Kymberly Hobbs, Givens' grieving sister, sued for $15 million. She alleged that correctional officers Anthony Raymond Kelly, Gregory Scott Plummer, Joshua Jackson and William Zachary Montgomery participated in the savage beating of 52-year-old Givens, breaking his ribs that tore into his spleen, leading him to bleed out and die in his cell. Hobbs alleged in court filings that a fifth guard, Samuel Dale Osborne, didn't participate directly, but did not intervene to save Givens' life.
Amir Makled thought he was being racially profiled. A Lebanese American who was born and raised in Detroit, the attorney was returning home from a family vacation in the Dominican Republic when he said an immigration official at the Detroit Metro airport asked for a “TTRT” agent after scanning his passport on Sunday. Makled said the expression on the agent’s face changed. He felt something “odd” was happening.
“So I Googled what TTRT meant. I didn’t know,” Makled said. “And what I found out was it meant Tactical Terrorism Response Team. So immediately I knew they’re gonna take me in for questioning. And that’s when I felt like I was being racially profiled or targeted because I am Arab.”
But it quickly became apparent, Makled said, that the stop was different from the type of so-called random stop Muslims and Arab-Americans have become accustomed to at US airports. The plainclothes immigration officer said he knew who Makled was and what he did for a living, according to the lawyer; agents wanted to search his phone.
Henrry Jose Albornoz Quintero was scheduled to attend an immigration court hearing in El Paso Thursday. He didn’t. The immigration judge presiding over his case was not happy.
“He just disappeared? What happened?”
The Trump administration lawyer either could not say — or would not.
“All I can disclose at the moment is that he’s no longer in ICE custody,” the lawyer said, according to the notes of Albornoz Quintero’s attorney, who attended the hearing.
The attorney believes his client is languishing at Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT), the Salvadoran mega-prison where the United States sent hundreds of migrants last month. The Trump administration has sent some people to the prison under the Alien Enemies Act, a rarely used wartime power; Trump claims alleged Tren de Aragua gang members are the equivalent to an invading army.
Others were sent to CECOT after receiving standard deportation orders from immigration judges.
The Social Security Administration this week classified more than 6,000 living immigrants as dead in a move directed by the Trump administration, according to a White House official.
The move, as reported by The New York Times and The Washington Post, classified the immigrants into the Social Security Administration’s "death master file,” which contains records of deceased individuals who possessed social security numbers. Moving them in the file means that those individuals' numbers would be invalidated and they would lose access to financial services.
Both the NYT and Reuters reported that the immigrants had previously been legally admitted to the U.S., but since had their temporary status revoked. The Department of Homeland Security identified these individuals as having criminal records or on the terrorist watch list, the White House official said.
The Department of Government Efficiency, headed by billionaire Elon Musk, played a role in the effort, according to the NYT and the Post.
The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has told the BBC that Gaza has become "hell on earth", as Israel's military assault there continues.
Mirjana Spoljaric's comments come on the same day the UN human rights office warned that Israel's tactics were threatening the viability of Palestinians continuing to live in Gaza at all.
The ICRC is the guardian of the Geneva Conventions - internationally agreed rules of conduct in war - and normally only speaks confidentially to warring parties when it thinks violations are taking place.
But Ms Spoljaric has now said publicly that what is happening in Gaza is an "extreme hollowing out" of international law.
More...
Nineteen Democratic state attorneys general are asking a federal judge to stop the Trump administration from cancelling hundreds of international student visas ‒ a move that's sent shockwaves through the collegiate community.
Although there's been no comprehensive accounting of how many students have seen their visas revoked, in some cases weeks before graduation, Trump officials say they have been in part targeting students they accuse of harboring ill-will toward the United States.
In some cases, the students participated in protests or otherwise gained attention for pro-Palestinian stances. Other visas appear to have been cancelled over paperwork issues or traffic violations.
The amicus brief filed April 11 by AGs from Arizona, California, Michigan and New York, among others, says an estimated 700 international students have lost their visas. The cancellations have forced students to leave the United States essentially on the spot, in some cases sending university administrators scrambling to figure out how to help them complete their degrees from their home countries.
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