The Greene County Democrat

Tag: NewsOne

  • The FBI Will Reportedly Stop Investigating ICE Confrontations. Why?

    The FBI Will Reportedly Stop Investigating ICE Confrontations. Why?

    By Zack Linly, NewsOne

    Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have shot and killed two immigrants within a week of each other, prompting national outrage and protests, as favorability toward the agency continues to plummet on the heels of the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good. So, how does the Trump administration respond to concerns that ICE is out of control and has become a danger to the general public? Well, apparently, it has decided that the FBI will no longer investigate confrontations with immigration agents, specifically cases that involve assault allegations against agents, and cases that could be used to prosecute federal agents implicated in violent encounters. Instead, those cases will reportedly be handled by an internal investigation arm of ICE, which essentially means the agency would be investigating itself.

    Now, according to the New York Times, the administration is denying the rule change, and we’ll circle back to that in a second, but FBI agents have reportedly already been informed of it.

    From the Times:

    F.B.I. managers around the country received a written notice informing them of the change on Thursday, according to the people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal communications. The same day, some ICE agents around the country were notified by their F.B.I. counterparts.

    The guidance shared with them said that the bureau would stop investigating claims of assaults against Department of Homeland Security agents, the people said. Even though such investigations are intended to determine whether the officers were in fact attacked, they can provide a crucial means of gathering evidence implicating the agents themselves.

    Under the change, responsibility for investigating cases involving federal immigration officers would likely fall to Homeland Security Investigations, an arm of ICE, effectively leaving the agency to investigate itself, according to guidance circulated

    Cases involving an assault on a federal officer have been a source of tension inside federal law enforcement agencies for more than a year. White House and Justice Department officials have pushed prosecutors to bring charges in as many of them as possible, particularly as Americans protest the administration’s immigration crackdown.

    Under the federal statute, felony charges can be brought against anyone who “forcibly assaults, resists, opposes, impedes, intimidates or interferes” with a federal law enforcement officer.among F.B.I. and ICE agents.

    Cases involving an assault on a federal officer have been a source of tension inside federal law enforcement agencies for more than a year. White House and Justice Department officials have pushed prosecutors to bring charges in as many of them as possible, particularly as Americans protest the administration’s immigration crackdown.

    Under the federal statute, felony charges can be brought against anyone who “forcibly assaults, resists, opposes, impedes, intimidates or interferes” with a federal law enforcement officer.

    Just to put this all in perspective, last year, a federal judge in Chicago ordered the release of numerous videos that show, among other things, that immigration agents and DHS officials have made a habit of lying about anti-ICE protesters assaulting or posing threats to agents before those agents began using tear gas, pepper-balls, and other non-lethal yet brutal tactics to get them under control. The order came on the heels of the case of Chicago activist Marimar Martinez, who was shot several times by federal agents and accused of following and ramming ICE vehicles while agents were conducting their operations. The charges related to those allegations were dismissed with prejudice because witness accounts and surveillance footage of the incident contradicted what agents said happened, among other discrepancies in the government’s narrative.

    And we all saw the lengths the government went to to smear Good and Pretti as “domestic terrorists” who attacked agents before they were fatally shot, which video footage showed was not true in both cases.

    The point is, this is an administration that lies and spreads anti-immigrant and pro-ICE propaganda routinely, and any changes made in how these incidents are investigated would only be made so the administration could further insulate itself from outside accountability. (Not that the FBI should rightfully be considered an agency that is separate from the administration with Kash Patel at the helm, but still.)

    At any rate, the administration denied that the rule change had happened.

    “The relationship between D.H.S. and D.O.J. in investigating assault on federal officer cases has not changed, and F.B.I. will continue to investigate in accordance with agency policy,” a joint statement by the Justice Department and DHS said. “This administration has been clear, anyone who assaults law enforcement will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

    Notice the sleight of hand there. The concern is not that people who allegedly assault federal officers won’t be held accountable. This administration has been caught lying about agents being attacked numerous times, only for it to come out that the agents were actually the aggressors. The federal government’s statement even indicates that its only concern is for the agents accusing others of violence, not the other way around. And if it is true that officials have directed the FBI to no longer investigate these cases, leaving it to internal ICE departments to investigate themselves, it would only mean the administration is limiting scrutiny of immigration agents by law enforcement.

    The administration that claims everything is rigged is continuing its attempts to rig everything in its own favor. We can’t let it.

    Read the original article here.

    Featured Image: ICE Death Memorial (Houston Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers/Getty)

  • Newswire: Maryland Gov.Wes Moore set to pardon 175,000 people convicted of marijuana charges

    By Bilal G. Morris, NewsOne

    According to AP, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore plans to issue 175,000 pardons for marijuana convictions. Moore is scheduled to sign the executive order on Monday that will free low-level marijuana possession offenders for more than 100,000 people.
    “I’m ecstatic that we have a real opportunity with what I’m signing to right a lot of historical wrongs,” Moore told AP. “If you want to be able to create inclusive economic growth, it means you have to start removing these barriers that continue to disproportionately sit on communities of color.”
    Recreational cannabis has been legal in Maryland since 2023. Neighboring states such as Delaware, Virginia and New Jersey have all legalized recreational marijuana. There are 24 other states as well as the District of Columbia that have legalized recreational marijuana.
    Moore says criminal records have commonly been used to deny housing, employment and education and hopes the pardons will help change that.
    “If you want to be able to create inclusive economic growth, it means you have to start removing these barriers that continue to disproportionately sit on communities of color,” Moore told the Washington Post  “certainly long overdue as a nation” and “a racial equity issue.”
    Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, also told the Post that the pardons were “certainly long overdue as a nation” and “a racial equity issue.”
    “While the pardons will extend to anyone and everyone with a misdemeanor conviction for the possession of marijuana or paraphernalia, this unequivocally, without any doubt or reservation, disproportionately impacts — in a good way — Black and Brown Marylanders,” Brown said.
    The pardons will happen around the same time the nation celebrates the Juneteenth holiday, commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.
    Marijuana convictions coupled with the American prison system have perpetuated modern-day slavery in the form of a jail cell. According to studies, Black Americans are arrested for violating marijuana possession laws at nearly four times the rates of white Americans, yet both consume marijuana at roughly the same rates.
    In 2022, President Biden issued a mass pardon of federal marijuana convictions, pardoning more than 6,500 people. He also urged Governors to follow in his footsteps. As more states legalize marijuana, hopefully, more pardons will follow.

  • Newswire: DOJ Report concludes that Minneapolis police are racist and abusive toward Black and Brown people

    By: Bruce C.T. Wright, Newsone

    Mural and Memorial to George Floyd in Minneapolis

    Confirming widespread suspicions, an investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) has determined that the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) as well as the city of Minneapolis have not only been engaging in a pattern of racist behavior but have also done so while being abusive to mostly Black and brown people.
    The DOJ findings come more than three years after city police officer Derek Chauvin used his knee to apply deadly pressure to the neck of George Floyd, who was handcuffed at the time and insisting he couldn’t breathe as stunned onlookers recorded video footage of the murder.
    In particular, the DOJ found that MPD routinely employs “excessive force, including unjustified deadly force and unreasonable use of tasers; Unlawfully discriminates against Black people and Native American people in its enforcement activities, including the use of force following stops;” and “Violates the rights of people engaged in protected speech.”
    As a result of its findings, the DOJ said that it and the city of Minneapolis have entered into a consent decree “to resolve the [DOJ’s] findings.”
    U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who restored the DOJ’s power to investigate police shortly after he was confirmed in 2021, described the DOJ’s findings in Minneapolis as just the beginning of being able to forge a legitimate path forward for the city’s police department to truly protect and serve its Black and Brown citizens.
    “George Floyd’s death had an irrevocable impact on his family, on the Minneapolis community, on our country, and on the world,” Garland said in a statement. “The patterns and practices of conduct the Justice Department observed during our investigation are deeply disturbing. They erode the community’s trust in law enforcement. And they made what happened to George Floyd possible. Today, we have completed our investigation, but this is only the first step. We will continue to work with the city and the MPD toward ensuring that MPD officers have the support and resources they need to do their jobs effectively and lawfully as we work together toward meaningful and durable reform.”

    Floyd’s murder seemingly has not prevented Minneapolis police from its aggressive — and, according to the DOJ, racist and abusive — tactics, as shown with the shooting death of Amir Locke, a 22-year-old Black man who police shot last year within seconds of seeing him while he was sleeping in an apartment they raided in search of another person.
    The lawyers representing Locke’s family called the DOJ report “deeply disturbing” and condemned “these unconstitutional patterns and practices on the community and individual lives.” They also expressed “hope” about the efficacy of the consent decree but admitted they have doubts.
    “Unfortunately, our legal team remains skeptical about Minneapolis’ commitment to change and accountability,” the statement by civil rights attorneys Ben Crump, Antonio Romanucci, and Jeff Storms said in part because of how Minneapolis has repeatedly tried to dismiss the lawsuit brought by Locke’s parents.
    “This continued refusal to police from within is a textbook example of why the federal government must police the Minneapolis police,” the lawyers said.
    The conclusions from the DOJ’s investigation are especially important as efforts at reforming the police on a federal scale have repeatedly failed or stalled in Congress. The George Floyd Justice In Policing Act — proposed sweeping legislation aimed at reforming how police departments enforce the nation’s laws — has not advanced past the Senate.
    In particular, the George Floyd Justice In Policing Act would have eliminated qualified immunity, a deal-breaker for Republicans who are in favor of keeping the legal protections that shield police officers from civil liability when they’ve violated a citizen’s constitutional rights.

  • Newswire : In bipartisan effort Senators urge Biden Administration to halt Haitian deportations

    Demonstrators protest outside the US Citizenship and Immigration Service office in Miami, on February 20, 2021, demanding that the administration of US President Joe Biden cease deporting Haitian immigrants back to Haiti. (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP) (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)

    By: Anoa Changa, NewsOne

    Concerns about the U.S. deportation of Haitians continues as the country grapples with internal strife and unrest. In a bipartisan show of support, Sens. Robert Menendez and Marco Rubio urged the Biden administration to stop the deportations given Haiti’s current state of affairs. In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the senators called for Haitians in the U.S. to remain under the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation. “Haiti’s protracted political crisis exacerbates the severe and prolonged humanitarian needs sparked by the 2010 earthquake,” wrote the senators. The senators say the move would cover up to 55,000 Haitians in the U.S., including current TPS recipients. The National Immigration Center reported the number of asylum requests processed has dropped dramatically while deportations surge. In response to immigration advocates, the Biden administration announced it would review the use of the Title 42 program. But deportations have continued. As previously reported by NewsOne, immigration and human rights advocates demanded the Biden Administration stop deporting Haitians given the well-documented instability in the country. Homeland Security has previously acknowledged the likelihood of harm to Haitians sent back to the island nation. One of four witnesses to give testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, Emmanuela Douyon of Nou Pap Dòmi said she remained hopeful the Biden Administration would break from the past and listen to the Haitian people. “Rather than take sides in a constitutional dispute, it will be more helpful to listen to and offer solidarity with the Haitian people,” said Douyon in her opening statement. Guerline Jozef, president of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, told the committee that over 129 asylum seekers were being deported as the hearing was happening. Over the weekend, social media users expressed outrage at ongoing conditions with the #FreeHaiti hashtag. An expression of self-determination, not a plea for help, #FreeHaiti began trending after news broke of the brutal killing of members of the Haitian National Police. Reporting for the Miami Herald, Jacqueline Charles explained the escalating situation as the United Nations demanded an explanation after an “anti-gang” operation in Port-au-Prince went horribly wrong. Anoa Changa is a movement journalist and retired attorney based in Atlanta, Georgia. Follow Anoa on Instagram and Twitter @thewaywithanoa.