Greene County Democrat

Category: Community

  • Wells Fargo commits $60B lending goal toward African American home ownership

    WellsFargoBankPhoto.jpg     Wells Fargo announced on Tuesday a $60 billion lending commitment to create at least 250,000 African American homeowners by 2027, directly addressing the lower home ownership rates in the African American community.

    The financial commitment serves to help a community that is slated to significantly increase. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, by the year 2024, 75% of the expected 14 million new households (renters and owners) in the U.S. will be diverse.

    And of this amount, African Americans are projected to represent 17%, or the third largest segment, of the new households.

    Wells Fargo said that through the commitment it plans to:

    • Lend $60 billion to qualified African American consumers for home purchases by 2027
    • Increase the diversity of the Wells Fargo Home Lending sales team
    • Support the effort with $15 million to support a variety of initiatives that promote financial education and counseling over the next ten years.

    The National Association of Real Estate Brokers (composed of African American real estate professionals), which has also set a home ownership goal, and two of the nation’s most influential civil rights organizations, the NAACP and the National Urban League, are also working alongside Wells Fargo.

    “Wells Fargo’s $60 billion lending goal can contribute to economic growth by making responsible home ownership possible for more African Americans in communities across the country,” said Brad Blackwell, executive vice president and head of housing policy and home ownership growth strategies for Wells Fargo.

    “NAREB applauds Wells Fargo’s $60 billion loan commitment. The bank is the first financial institution to acknowledge publicly Black Americans’ wealth-building potential which could be greatly improved through home ownership,” said Ron Cooper, president, National Association of Real Estate Brokers.

    “NAREB welcomes their entry into the struggle to close the ever-widening wealth gap for Black Americans, and looks forward to having Wells Fargo as a partner in NAREB’s ‘2 Million New Black Homeowners in 5 Years’ program,” he continued.

    Wells Fargo’s $60 million commitment follows its 2015 announcement to help increase Hispanic home ownership. At the time, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage said it aimed originate $125 billion over the next 10 years in order to assist in the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals’ Hispanic Wealth Project, which seeks to triple Hispanic household wealth over the next decade.

    While Wells Fargo’s lending commitment is spread out over ten years, according to a recent interview with Raphael Bostic, a professor at the Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California, America is projected to become drastically more diverse over the next several decades.

    “The Census Bureau has a projection that America will be 100 million people more in the next 45 years,” said Bostic. “And if you break down where the growth is coming, it’s coming with African American families, it’s coming with Asian families, and it’s coming with Latino families. What we will have at the end of that period is the most diverse country that we’ve ever seen. It really won’t make sense to talk about minorities since there will be pluralities of everyone.”

     

     

  • Congress must investigate Trumps potential Russian ties

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     By Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.)

    The endurance of our nation’s security, sovereignty, and democracy is not a partisan issue. This is a top concern for all Americans and should be a top priority for the leaders that we send to Washington, whether Democrat or Republican. As elected officials, my colleagues and I swore to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. We, therefore, have a responsibility to do our due diligence in investigating Russian interference, and potential influence, into our democratic elections and the potential Russian ongoing connections within this current presidential administration.

    Despite all of the evidence gathered thus far – evidence that has led all 17 of the U.S. intelligence agencies to conclude with confidence that the Russians had indeed interfered in the past election – the current administration seems unable or unwilling to put its full weight behind a full and proper investigation that seems necessary to the American people. In the face of evidence that campaign and administration officials seem to have had relationships with Russian officials, the president cannot simply move on from this issue. In fact, the resignation of National Security Advisor Michael Flynn this month seems to provide us with more questions than answers.

    The potential conflicts between the Trump Administration and its apparent ties to Russia seem numerous. The president has refused to release his tax returns – a move not seen from any other modern major party candidate – leaving questions unanswered as to potential Russian business ties and conflicts of interest that President Trump was all too happy to gloat about in years past. The president is unable to criticize Russia and its dictator-like leader Vladimir Putin, but, instead, praises him and prefers him to President Obama.

    When confronted with the assertion that Putin has had journalists and political opponents killed, President Trump doubled down on his support of Putin by shockingly asserting a moral equivalence between Russia and the United States.

    The president’s ties to Russia don’t end with him, however, they trickle down into his administration. As in the campaign, President Trump continues to surround himself with advisers that have expansive and well-documented financial entanglements to Russia. Recently, “The New York Times” reported that phone records show Trump associates communicated with senior Russian intelligence officials throughout the campaign, including his former campaign chair Paul Manafort, who is known to have involvements in multimillion-dollar business deals with Putin allies in Ukraine.             Additionally, Michael Flynn was forced to resign following information revealing that he had lied about privately discussing U.S sanctions against Russia with the Russian ambassador to the United States before Trump took office, a potentially illegal act. It has since been reported that White House officials were made aware of Flynn’s actions and made no effort to correct the record. It was only after leaks to the public that President Trump’s hand was forced, raising concerns regarding the ability of this White House to maintain honest and open communication with the American people.

    This intricate web leaves us with critical questions that must be answered. What did the President know and when? Was the White House ignoring or covering up the truth and spreading misinformation? Did Flynn operate at the direction or the knowledge of the President and were others involved? The American people deserve to know the full extent of Russia’s financial, personal and political strings attached to President Trump and this administration.

    Now more than ever, we need an independent, bipartisan commission to fully investigate Russia’s interference in the election and any potential Trump campaign ties to the Kremlin. Unfortunately, Republican leaders in the House seem less than enthusiastic about investigating their own President. In turn, last month, Representatives Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) reintroduced legislation that would create a 12-member, bipartisan, independent commission empowered to conduct an in-depth investigation into attempts by the Russian government or others to use electronic means to influence, interfere with, or undermine trust in last year’s elections. This would be similar to the highly-praised 9/11 Commission – which was led by well-regarded national security experts that were not elected officials. Such a commission is not only necessary in order to ensure our security, but to restore trust in this administration and in the democratic process. All Democratic members of the House of Representatives, along with one Republican, have co-sponsored this critical bipartisan legislation.

    The American people deserve transparency and peace of mind when it comes to their elected leadership. The Trump Administration has insisted on remaining friendly with Russia despite the very clear threat that they have presented to our national security. In doing so, they have put our nation at risk while keeping American citizens in the dark. The Trump Administration’s intent to ignore these ongoing acts of aggression sends a message that this type of meddling is acceptable. The only democratic way forward is to launch a complete investigation into not only the interference into our democratic election, but also into the ties and communication that this administration has had with Russia.

    U.S. Congressman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) represents Mississippi’s 2nd Congressional District and is the ranking member on the House Committee on Homeland Security. He is also a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

  • Rep. Terri Sewell statement on bomb threats to Jewish Community Center in Birmingham

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     Congresswoman Terri Sewell

    Washington, D.C. – Today, Rep. Terri A. Sewell (D-AL) released the following statement on recent anti-Semitic attacks and bomb threats to Jewish facilities national, as well as in Birmingham, AL:

    “I am deeply disturbed by the threats against Jewish community centers in Birmingham and nationwide,” said Congresswoman Terri A. Sewell (D-AL). “These hate crimes will not be tolerated. Many of my constituents still remember the 1963 bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham that killed four young black girls. We cannot and will not let that kind of hate rock our community ever again. The families in my district reject anti-Semitism or discrimination against any religion or race, and we will call out and confront discrimination wherever it is present.”

    On Feb. 23, Congresswoman Terri Sewell joined 157 members of Congress in a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), urging the agencies to swiftly assess the recent threats against Jewish community centers and to advise Congress on any steps which it can take to help counter those threats.

    On Monday, the Birmingham police investigated a bomb threat at the Levite Jewish Community Center, the third bomb threat to the Community Center over the past month. According to the FBI’s Birmingham division, the FBI and the Justice Department’s Civil Rights division will investigate as part of a nationwide probe into threats against Jewish community centers.

    In the first two months of 2017 alone, there have been more than 60 incidents targeting Jewish community centers nationwide. The bomb threat reported on Monday was the third to be reported against Birmingham’s Levite Jewish Community Center this year.  The first bomb threat happened Jan. 18 and then again on Feb. 20.

     

  • Thomas Perez elected new chair of Democratic National Committee

    Perez, the former labor secretary, is the first Latino leader to be at the helm of the DNC.

    Written By NewsOne Staff

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    Thomas Perez

    The Democratic National Committee elected former Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez as its new chair on Saturday. Perez edged out Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison to clinch the victory, reports the New York Times.

    Former Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee on Saturday, narrowly defeating Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota to take the helm of a still-divided party stunned by President Trump’s victory but hopeful that it can ride the backlash against his presidency to revival.

    The balloting, which carried a measure of suspense not seen in the party in decades, revealed that Democrats have yet to heal the wounds from last year’s presidential primary campaign. Mr. Perez, buoyed by activists most loyal to former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, won with 235 votes out of 435 cast on the second ballot.

    Mr. Ellison, who was lifted primarily by the liberal enthusiasts of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, captured the remaining 200 votes. But that was only after he had pushed the voting to a second round after Mr. Perez fell a single vote short of winning on the first ballot.

    According to the New York Times, Perez appointed Rep. Ellison as the deputy chairman of the DNC, as a sign of unity needed by the Democratic Party.

    Perez used his victory speech to address the importance of unity within the Democratic party. “As a team, we will work together,” he said, according to ABC News. “We should all be able to say … the united Democratic Party led the resistance and ensured that this president would be a one-term president.”

     

  • President Trump signs Executive Order on HBCU’s

     

    HBCU Presidents Request $25 Billion in Aid from The White House
    By Lauren Victoria Burke (NNPA Newswire Contributor)

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    President Trump with HBCU Presidents in Oval Office at  the White House

    President Trump signed an executive order to focus more attention on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) on Tuesday, February 28.

    Although HBCUs comprise just three percent of higher education institutions in the U.S., “HBCUs contributed 19 percent of the nearly 9 percent of all bachelor’s degrees in science and engineering awarded to Blacks in 2010,” according to American Institutes for Research (AIR).

    AIR also reported that “By 2010, approximately 33 percent of all Black students who earned bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and statistics attended HBCUs, and HBCUs produced nearly 37 percent of all Black undergraduates who received bachelor’s degrees in the physical sciences.”

    Every president since Jimmy Carter has issued an Executive Order establishing a White House Initiative on HBCUs. The order Trump signed will have a key difference: Trump’s order will move the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, previously part of the Department of Education, into the White House.

    During the Obama Administration, the late Dr. George Cooper, headed the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Cooper was succeeded by Dr. Ivory Toldson, who left the post in June 2016 to lead the Quality Education for Minorities (QEM), a non-profit group in Washington, D.C.

    A February 27 photo-op with President Trump in the Oval Office and group “listening session” meeting with Vice President Michael Pence with over 60 HBCU presidents was the first meeting of its kind with HBCU presidents and chancellors in at least eight years.

    HBCU presidents, who are in Washington, D.C., this week, also have decided to request $25 billion from the Trump Administration to assist their schools.

    At a HBCU president’s reception on Monday night, Grambling President Rick Gallot told the NNPA Newswire that the priorities of HBCUs are, “spending on campus infrastructure and an increase in year around Pell Grants.”

    A senior White House Official in the Trump Administration briefed reporters on February 27 at the White House on moving the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities into the White House and assigning an executive director.

    The initiative on HBCUs, “lost track, because they didn’t have the full force of the White House behind them. This HBCU order will do that by repositioning the initiative in the White House,” the senior Trump Administration official said.

    The senior White House Official added that the administration wants HBCUs to serve as partners in the President’s urban agenda and that the administration also wants to increase the private sector’s role in supporting and strengthening their participation in federal programs. HBCUs did not fare well during the Obama Administration. In 2009, the Obama Administration failed to renew a two-year appropriation for HBCUs of $85 million a year. The money would later have to be restored by concerned Democrats who controlled Congress.

    HBCUs collectively lost over $300 million in grants and tuition after a bureaucratic level decision in 2011 enacted in Obama’s Department of Education made obtaining Parent PLUS loans much more difficult. As a result, 28,000 HBCU students were negatively impacted.

    In September 2013, President Obama’s Education Secretary Arne Duncan apologized to HBCU leaders and advocates for the Parent PLUS loan decision. In 2012, Duncan proposed an end to a three-year implementation of summer Pell Grants. The elimination of summer Pell Grants is an issue HBCU presidents often say they’d like restored. Almost two-thirds of African American undergraduate students receive Pell funding.

    In 2015, President Obama proposed two years of free community college without consulting HBCU advocates. Many of those advocates viewed the proposal as a threat to HBCUs. The proposal, which was never enacted by a Republican-controlled Congress, was later changed to include HBCUs.

    In early 2015, during a meeting with members of the Congressional Black Caucus, President Obama expressed what many members later told the NNPA Newswire was a lack of support for HBCUs. President Obama was critical of HBCU graduation rates and loan policies.

    In February 2015, President Obama’s own HBCU Board of Advisors Chair, Hampton University President Dr. William Harvey, was critical of the Obama Administration. “We are not consulted when it comes to policy changes and decisions impacting – in a major way – the institutions on whose behalf we are to advocate,” said Harvey. “It happened with Pell. It happened with Parent PLUS. And, now it is happening with the new community college initiative.”

    Regarding their visit to the White House on Monday, that included seeing President Trump and Vice President Pence, many HBCU presidents said they were happy to see HBCUs receiving attention within the first 100 days of Trump’s presidency, but they were cautiously optimistic.

    “There was very little listening to HBCU presidents today. We were only given about two minutes each, and that was cut to one minute, so only about 7 of maybe 15 or so speakers were given an opportunity today,” wrote Dillard President Walter Kimbrough detailed in a column posted on Medium on the night of February 27. The HBCU presidents convened at the Library of Congress on February 28 for an all day session with members of Congress.

  • Trump Atrocities Report (TAR) #3

    mya 1.jpgWe continue our report on the outrageous and harmful actions taken by the Trump Administration and its Republican supporters in Congress, which hurt the working people of America.

    We are numbering the atrocities consecutively, so you will have to go back to previous papers or go to our website on line at http://www.greenecodemocrat.com to see the prior atrocities committed by no. 45, his cabinet, cronies and supporters.

    Atrocity No. 9: Trump is getting payments from foreign governments. He is receiving payments from foreign government through his business holdings in other countries, in direct violation of the “emoluments clause” of the U. S. Constitution. We do not know which governments and what amounts because Trump has never released his income tax returns that might shed some light on these issues. We hope the Congressional investigation of Trump’s dealings with Russia, China, Ukraine and other countries will reveal some of the facts on these secret dealings.

    Atrocity No. 10: Trump has accused the press of promoting “fake news” while at the same time saying leaks from the White House are false and dangerous. He continues to sew confusion and dissension over news that he does not agree without clarifying what is true and what is “alternative truth”.

    Atrocity No. 11: The Trump Administration has removed racist and white supremacist groups from the terrorist watch-lists. The only groups highlighted now are “Islamic terrorist groups”. The KKK and other indigenous groups, practicing terror within the borders of the country, are no longer listed and being followed by law enforcement.

    Please feel free to send us information on public policy atrocities you think that this Administration is committing, especially those which hurt its supporters.

  • Senator Hank Sanders – We will not pay the city to reenact the ‘Bloody Sunday March’; Bridge Crossing Jubilee and Slow Ride to Montgomery will go forward

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    Congresswoman Terri Sewell receives “Drum Major for Freedom Award” at the Jimmie Lee Jackson Day program in Marion on Sunday, February 19, 2017. This program sponsored by the Perry County Civic League marks the beginning of a three-week celebration of the right to vote in Alabama. L to R are: Sen. Bobby Singleton, Ms. Willie Nell Avery Congresswoman Terri Sewell and Albert Turner.

    At a press conference on Wednesday morning at the Alabama State Legislature, State Senator Hank Sanders said the Bridge Crossing Jubilee received a letter from the City of Selma charging $23,882 for police protection, plus an undetermined amount for clean-up after the four day celebration of the right to vote and commemoration of the 1965 Bloody Sunday March, which led to passage of the Voting Rights Act.
    “We paid the price in blood to march in 1965 and we will not pay the police and clean-up fees that the City of Selma is charging us for this year. This is an effort by some in the City to stop this event or take it over.

    We will fight this attack by the city in every arena and every way we can,” said Sanders.
    “This is not a question of money, since the City of Selma receives thousands of dollars in sales tax money from people who come to the multi-day event. We have 40 to 50 different events, mostly workshops, films, and meetings, which are indoors in churches and public buildings that do not require any police involvement.
    “We start Thursday evening, March 2, 2017, with a mass meeting at Tabernacle Baptist Church. There will be workshops and programs on Friday and Saturday; a breakfast on Sunday March 5, church services and the March Re-enactment on Sunday evening from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM. The slow ride from Selma to Montgomery begins Monday, March 6 with the assembling of cars on the east side of the bridge.
    “The City is trying to charge us for four days of police protection and clean-up for ordinary church and workshop meetings that they never charge anyone else for holding. We have one parade and the March re-enactment, which draws thousands of people. The attack on the Bridge Crossing Jubilee is unprecedented and illegal. We will not pay this bill and we will fight it every way we can.”
    Sanders was asked about the Battle of Selma re-enactment, which has also been charged for police and clean-up fees. They have set up a Go-Fund-Me page on the Internet to raise money. Sanders said, “The Battle of Selma re-enactment takes place outside on City owned property and does not bring as many people to stay in Selma. But we welcome the Battle of Selma people to join our fight against the city’s fees.”

    Schedule for the Bridge Crossing Jubilee
    Leaders and organizers of Bloody Sunday and the Selma-to-Montgomery March Commemorations and the Bridge Crossing Jubilee held a news conference last week to discuss the upcoming events in Selma being held March 2nd through the 6th.
    This year, 2017, marks the 52nd Anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the Selma-to-Montgomery March and the 25th Anniversary of the Bridge Crossing Jubilee, which began in1992 and has been held every year since then.
    Sen. Hank Sanders, one of the leaders of the effort, said: “It is all coming together. This is the largest annual Civil Rights gathering in the country, where tens of thousands come every year. More than one hundred thousand came on just one day – the 50th anniversary of ‘Bloody Sunday’ in 2015, two years ago.
    When you have 40-50 events, it takes so much of everything: so many people, so much money, and so much effort, so much working together to make it happen.”
    Dr. James M. Mitchell, President of Wallace Community College Selma (WCCS) and Chair of the Selma-to-Montgomery Commemoration Foundation said: “Rev. William J. Barber II, internationally known leader and founder of the Moral Movement, will be headlining the events on Sunday. No national leader is fighting more effectively to protect the right to vote than Rev. Barber. He will be speaking at the Martin and Coretta King Unity Breakfast at Wallace Community College Selma on Sunday, March 5th at 7:30 a.m., then briefly at Brown Chapel AME Church where the March starts following the breakfast, and at the foot of the Bridge.
    Rev. Barber will also lead the Selma-to-Montgomery Slow Ride on Monday, March 6th. Other nationally known leaders are participating and will be announced in the coming days. The media is invited to all events.”
    There are many educational activities throughout the week, and Wallace Community College Selma hosts workshops and other educational events that are free to the public. The Bridge Crossing Jubilee includes events in downtown Selma, at WCCS, and at other locations across Selma from Thursday, March 2nd through Monday, March 6th.
    Faya Rose Toure (Sanders), volunteer coordinator of the Bridge Crossing Jubilee, said: “I want to encourage everyone to come out. No one is too young or too old. We’re excited about all of the events – not just this year, but every year.”
    Sam Walker of the National Voting Rights Museum said: “From time-to-time we do the full March from Selma to Montgomery. This year, we are doing a Selma-to-Montgomery Slow Ride on Monday, March 6th. The Slow Ride consists of a long line of vehicles making the commemorative journey from Selma to Montgomery. It begins at 9:00 a.m. in Selma on the Montgomery side of the Bridge and arrives in Montgomery at 11:00 a.m. for an outdoor rally on the Capitol Steps followed by a workshop on protecting voting rights in the Joint Briefing Room on the 8th Floor of the State House. We invite people with vehicles to begin assembling at 8:00 AM so we can start on time with at least 52 vehicles (cars, trucks, vans, SUV’s school buses, church buses) – all are welcome.
    Rep. Thad McClammy of Montgomery said: “I was in Selma and Montgomery in 1965 when all of these momentous events were taking place. These events and the power of nonviolence changed the nation. They also became a worldwide symbol for voting rights. The Bloody Sunday and Selma-to-Montgomery March Commemorations and the Bridge Crossing Jubilee are not just local, state or national events. They are international events. We are happy to witness another historic year, on this the 52nd Anniversary.”

    For more information and a detailed schedule of events, go to: http://www.selmajubilee.com on the Internet or call 334/526-2626.

  • Sen. Shelby holds town meeting in Boligee

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    Shown above Sen. Richard Shelby (center), with Boligee Mayor Louis Harper and Commissioner Tennyson Smith at a meeting held in Boligee.

     

    U. S. Senator Richard Shelby held a town meeting at the Boligee Café on Monday morning – February 20, 2017. Shelby greeted a group of public officials and townspeople at the breakfast meeting.
    Shelby said he was starting his sixth – 6-year term as a Senator after four terms as Congressman from the 7th Congressional District.
    Shelby said he was blessed and privileged to represent the people of Alabama in Washington and was trying to do the right thing. He cited the challenge of terrorism (foreign and domestic, the problems of the continuous growing national debt and deficit and the difficulties of ending poverty in the Alabama Black Belt area, as issues facing him and the nation.
    Thad Spree asked him about his support of Greene County’s Amendment 743 for electronic bingo. Shelby said this was basically a state issue but he understood the importance of gaming to Greene County. He said the issue becomes Federal when you consider that the Federal government regulates gambling on Indian reservations because they are sovereign nations.
    Hospital CEO, Elmore Patterson asked what he was planning to do to help preserve rural hospitals in the effort to “repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act”. Shelby said that we would have to study the proposals, including the Block-granting of Medicaid, but he was not sure what solution to vote for because whatever is done will add to the national deficit.
    Mayor Harper of Boligee asked if the Amtrak train could stop in Boligee to take on passengers. Shelby said that other than in the Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington D. C. that Amtrak was losing money. We look at Amtrak from a national perspective and it is no longer for local routes and local stops.
    Shelby was also asked about veterans, issues, education, and support for the Alabama Gulf Coast Railroad DOT grant to strengthen 114 railroad bridges between Columbus, Mississippi and the Gulf Coast, and other matters.
    Asked about protecting Social Security, Shelby said, “Those who are getting it now will be safe but some changes will need to be made to bolster the Social Security Trust Fund for younger people. He suggested gradually raising the retirement age for recipients.” During the 2016 Presidential campaign, Senator Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton supported an increase in the cap on Social Security earnings that are taxed, from the current $122,000 to a higher level, which would also bolster the program for younger people.

  • African refugees look north to Canada as U. S. deportations rise

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    Welcoming group at Canadian airport

    Feb. 20, 2017 (GIN) – Refugees including some from Africa have been trekking through subzero weather at the northern U.S. border with Canada in a bid to escape a new wave of deportations from the U.S.

    Last week, a family of eight reportedly from the Sudan managed to cross the border just as a U.S. immigration official attempted to block their way. One member of the group said they had been living and working in Delaware for the past two years.
    A record number of people seeking refugee status have been pouring over the Canada-U.S. border as the U.S. looks to tighten its policies on refugees and illegal immigrants. Last month, 452 people filed petitions in Quebec compared to 137 in the same month a year before.
    During the January – October 2016 period, refugee applicants included 895 Chinese citizens, 945 Nigerian citizens, and 575 people of Turkish nationality. In addition to these, Canada registered 90 Americans making refugee claims. Somalis also make up a large percentage of the refugee group.
    Despite Canada’s more open policy toward refugees and immigrants, however, refugees can also be detained and jailed. The Vancouver-based advocacy group No One is illegal, said 87,317 migrants were detained in Canada between 2006 and 2014, and sometimes put in provincial jails. They can be detained for months, and in cases where the applicant has mental health issues, they may be held for years.
    Meanwhile, leaders of the Somali community in Minneapolis are warning their fellow countrymen not to risk their lives by trekking across the U.S.-Canada border in freezing nighttime temperatures.
    Minneapolis community activist Omar Jamal told CTV Winnipeg that he has counseled as many as 30 families — mostly from Minnesota but also from Ohio — against crossing the border. About half have gone anyway, he said. Jamal said families are paying $600 to $1,000 a person for rides to the border, often with small children.
    Jibril Afyareh, an advocate with the Somali Citizens League, agreed that many of those heading north are people who have already been rejected by the U.S., and are now worried about deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
    Afyareh said he urges people to “stay calm” and avoid the risk of crossing into Canada.
    He also said the ban has had a devastating effect on those who saw the U.S. as a beacon of freedom but are now being told “you don’t belong here.”
    “Obviously we need to secure and work on the safety of this country,” Afyareh said. “I do this every day, working with the youth attorney trying to stop radicalization. But this (travel ban) defeats the purpose,” he added. “This sends the message that you’re not wanted by this country which is not the case.”

  • Patriots team members to sit out of White House visit, citing racism by Trump

    By Brittany Webb

    bennett-martellusMartellus Bennett
    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – Malcolm X once said, “A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.”
    Despite having a career where taking a fall on the field is sometimes inevitable, several members of the New England Patriots football team have reportedly decided to stand for what they believe in. They say they will sit out of the traditional visit to the White House by the Super Bowl Championship team.
    So far, six players – five Black players and one White – have announced their decision to not participate in the team’s visit. Those players are reportedly Martellus Bennett, Devin McCourty, Chris Long, LeGarrette Blount, Alan Branch and Dont’a Hightower. Long is the White player who says he will not go.
    “I’m not going to the White House,” McCourty said in a text to TIME magazine. “Basic reason for me is I don’t feel accepted in the White House. With the president having so many strong opinions and prejudices I believe certain people might feel accepted there while others won’t.”
    That unwelcome feeling is a feeling that McCourty shares with Blount, who, when asked about the team’s visit to the White House on The Rich Eisen Show, said, “I will not… It’s just some of the things—I just don’t feel welcome into that house. I’m just going to leave it at that.”
    Bennett was the first player to announce his decision when he addressed the visit in a postgame press conference, citing opposition to President Trump as his reason. Despite his views, Bennett says there is no divide in the team because of political views.
    “We all have our beliefs,” Bennett said. “The thing is, we accept people for who they are. And that’s the biggest thing about what this country is really about. I don’t really care what you believe. It’s not going to separate me from accepting you for who you are.”
    Bennett says anyone wanting to know more about his reasons for not going to the White House should just follow him on Twitter. Among his most recent tweet was immediately following Trump’s announced travel ban.
    The date of the White House visit has not yet been publically announced. “America was built on inclusiveness not exclusiveness,” he tweeted.
    It was also apparent bias and statements made by the commander-in-chief that influenced Patriots safety McCourty from skipping the trip as well. Although Long did not go into detail about his decision to skip the visit, it can be assumed, by his previous statements regarding race relations in America, that he is not fond of the current president and his policies. Branch is choosing to stay at home with family, while Hightower says he’s “been there, done that.”
    After the team’s victory, President Trump tweeted his support for the team and his friends quarterback Tom Brady, team owner Bob Kraft and head coach Bill Belichick. “What an amazing comeback and win by the Patriots,” Trump tweeted. “Tom Brady, Bob Kraft and Coach B are total winners. Wow!”
    Despite being a friend of Trump, Kraft respects the decision of the players to not visit the White House. “This is America,” Kraft said on the Today Show. “We’re all free to do whatever’s best for us, and we’re just privileged to be in the position to be going.”
    This is not the first time a Patriot has opted out of the team’s visit to the White House. In 2015, Brady decided to skip the team visit to the White House, under the Obama administration, after defeating the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl in 2015.