Update on the Trump Administration’s Anti-Migrant Policies and the Resistance to Violations of Liberty

The Trump Administration, after claiming it had no legal control over hundreds of Venezuelan refugees it had deported without due process to El Salvador, despite a contractual arrangement that obligated the United States to pay for their incarceration in a Salvadoran prison built for “terrorists,” where they were confined in inhumane conditions that clearly violated human rights, has exchanged the Venezuelan refugees for Americans held by Venezuela. I have posted that El Salvador’s right-wing populist pro-Trump President has become increasingly authoritarian, as human rights organizations have observed. The Central American State’s Head of State is in his second term, despite a constitutional limit of one term, as I have posted. Thus, the Venezuelan refugees, who were baselessly accused of membership in gangs, but never criminally charged, were used as bargaining chips in exchange for Americans held by Venezuela’s Socialist dictatorship, which, therefore, was a propaganda victory for Venezuela. The oppressive South American State’s regime was able to portray itself as rescuing its countrymen from persecution caused by the U.S. and its ally. The Trump Administration’s deportations of Venezuelan and Afghan refugees seeking asylum, for example, undermine U.S. foreign policy because the U.S. justly condemns and sanctions dictatorships for repression, but deporting refugees with a credible fear of persecution contradicts the policy, as the deportations falsely imply the refugees’ fear is baseless. Instead of targeting its efforts against those who are a security threat, the Trump Administration, is deporting migrants while they are shopping, attending school, seeking employment, working, receiving medical care, attending religious services at places of worship, attending legal and immigration hearings, and even appearing for naturalization process appointments. The Administration is thereby discouraging these activities, which, in some cases, represent a violation of freedom. In one extraordinary response to Trump Administration raids in churches, the Roman Catholic Bishop of San Bernardino is exempting Catholics from the obligation to attend Mass in his California Diocese if they have a genuine fear of being deported. Discouraging migrants from attending their immigration hearings or naturalization process is counterproductive to the Trump Administration’s claimed goal of enforcement of immigration laws, but reveals the true purpose of demagogy based on xenophobia. I have been posting how Christian and other religious organizations, secular human rights organizations, immigration lawyers, businesses, communities and States have resisted the Administration’s anti-migrant policies. As I have noted, the violation of the freedom and rights of any person is a threat to the violation of the freedom and rights of everyone, as Americans believe that every human has a birthright of liberty.

Foreign Digest: Russia and Afghanistan

Russia: A European Union report finds that Russia has used banned chemical weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine many times during its full-scale invasion since 2022 of the former Soviet Republic. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has agreed to send more arms to Ukraine to defend against Russian aggression. A Russian hacker ring has been targeted by international law enforcement, including by the United States and several Western European States that are NATO and EU members. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom UK attributed to Russian military intelligence services other cyberattacks and acts of sabotage on it and fellow NATO members, the U.S, France and Estonia. NATO and the EU condemned the Russian attacks on allies of Ukraine. The EU vows a response, beyond their multiple rounds of sanctions. The former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan is suing Russia for the downing of a civilian airliner in December and its failure to apologize or offer any compensation. The shootdown is in addition to Russia’s shootdown of the Malaysian civilian airliner in 2014 over Ukraine I posted an update about earlier this month. Afghanistan: The UN is requesting a pause on repatriations of asylum-seeking Afghan refugees to Afghanistan, especially those at risk of persecution, arbitrary detention and torture. The Trump Administration has ended legal protections for Afghan refugees, including those who worked with the U.S. and its coalition that overthrew the Taliban regime in 2022. The oppressive Islamists had harbored al-Qaeda, the Islamist terrorist organization responsible for the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on America that killed nearly 3,000 people, more than any other terrorist attack in world history. The Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021 after the U.S. and its coalition allies abandoned their Afghan Government allies who had taken power after the Taliban had been overthrown, but only Russia recognizes them diplomatically as the legitimate government of the Central Asian State, as I had posted earlier this month. The Taliban have been targeting Afghans who worked with the U.S. and its allies for persecution, including death. Trump’s betrayal of the Afghans, which has outraged American veterans of the War on Terrorism, undermines U.S. security.

Foreign Digest: Russia, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Georgia, Hungary, the European Union, Venezuela and Cuba

Russia and Afghanistan: The Russian Federation has become the first State in the world to recognize diplomatically the Islamist Afghan Taliban regime as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. The Taliban had harbored the al-Qaeda terrorist organization, until being overthrown by a United States-led international coalition in 2002, after the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on America killed nearly 3,000 people, the most in history. The Taliban returned to power in 2021 after the U.S. and its allies withdrew and the Afghan Government collapsed. The Taliban pledged not to allow Afghanistan to become a haven for terrorists again, but they have engaged in deadly reprisals against former Afghan Government officials and have oppressed Afghans, particularly women and religious and ethnic minorities while imposing strict Islamist law. Communist China praised Russia’s recognition of the Taliban. Russia and Ukraine: European Court of Human Rights ruled in four cases brought by Ukraine and the Netherlands that Russia has committed atrocities in the former Soviet Republic of Ukraine since its full-scale invasion in 2022, including destruction of property, kidnapping of children, torture, rape and murder, and was responsible for the downing in 2014 of a Malaysian civilian airliner over Ukraine that had departed from the Netherlands, killing nearly 300 people. Russia had supplied the missile to the separatists it had fomented that year, after seizing Crimea from Ukraine. Russia never properly investigated the shootdown and refused to answer to the inquiry, both of which were themselves violations of the European Convention on Human Rights treaty had Russia signed. The European Court is part of the Council of Europe, which expelled Russia in 2022 after its aggression against Ukraine, but to which Russia remains legally subject. The United Nation’s aviation ministry had found in May that Russia was responsible for shooting down the passenger jet. Ukraine and many private individuals have cases before the European Court. The UN and the International Criminal Court have also ruled against Russia for its aggression. Russians were convicted in a Dutch criminal court in abstentia for the shootdown of the civilian airliner. As I have posted, Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin is an ex-Soviet intelligence agent intent on restoring the Soviet Union. Georgia: Daily protests have continued in Georgia for well over 200 days against the pro-Russian and increasingly authoritarian Georgian Government of the former Soviet Republic in the South Caucuses. The desire of most Georgian people to join the European Union and be aligned with the West and the United States, as opposed to Russia, was highlighted by the abundance of American flags carried by demonstrators on American Independence Day. Hungary: The European Union report has found no progress made by the autocratic far-right anti-migrant Hungarian Government on eight areas, such as the fight against corruption, the independence of the media from public service, and the promotion of a safe civic space. Hungary is the least free and most corrupt member of the 27-member EU. Though an ally of the U.S. through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the former Soviet satellite’s ruling party is pro-Russian. European Union: The center-right-led EU Commission President Ursula van der Layen, of Germany, easily survived a no-confidence vote in the European Parliament brought by the far-right 360-175. She leads a broad coalition that includes centrists and the center-left. Some far-left members also backed the no-confidence vote. In parliamentary systems, a government must have the support of a majority of the members, expressed in a vote of confidence. Van der Layen dismissed the effort as based on conspiracy theories from anti-vaxxers and apologists for Putin. Venezuela: A UN report has found a situation of a total emergency, increased repression, and state impunity by the Socialist dictatorship of Venezuela. There were over 500 state killings and over 2,600 arbitrary arrests, the UN report found, in the South American State. Cuba: A Cuban political prisoner who was the leader of the opposition to the Communist dictatorship of Cuba, died last week after a hunger strike against the inhuman treatment of political prisoners in Cuba and lack of basic freedoms. The Communists have ruled the Caribbean Island State since 1959, murdering tens of thousands of opponents and repressing the Cuban people to keep power.

Measles Outbreak Update: Highest Total Cases in America in Decades

The measles outbreak in America as reached nearly 1,300 cases, which has passed the total for 2019, when the United States lost its status of having eradicated the preventable contagious virus that is particularly dangerous for children. It is the worst year for measles in America since 1991, before eradication by 2000. Fourteen States still have outbreaks, with Texas being the worst focal point, from which the contagion as spread to other States, and where there have been three deaths. The outbreak in America and thousands of cases in outbreaks in Mexico and Canada has been transmitted especially through Mennonites. The ethnic German Anabaptists have close-knit communities and low vaccination rates. In America, the vaccination rate is less than 93%, which is below the 95% needed to prevent outbreaks and to protect the relatively few who cannot be effectively vaccinated for medical reasons. The vaccine for measles, which used to be the leading cause of deafness, is 97% effective, as demonstrated by the eradication of the disease in many countries around the world, and safe, as proven by numerous scientific studies. The only study to suggest a link to autism was fraudulent, but some people on the far left and the far right, as well as libertarians, nevertheless oppose the measles vaccine and other vaccines, or at least vaccine mandates, as I have posted. As I have also posted, Russian disinformation against vaccines has increased vaccine hesitancy for measles and other preventable diseases and therefore caused more cases of such diseases and deaths in Europe and America as a kind of biological warfare by Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin, a former Soviet intelligence agent, against the West and its allies. The Trump Administration has undermined vaccines as an essential tool for public health in several ways because of leftwing Democrat Health Secretary Robert Kennedy’s conspiracy theories, instead of encouraging vaccination as the most effective tool against deadly contagious diseases like measles.

Independence Day Thoughts on the American Revolution and a Legislative Check on the Executive

As Americans celebrate Independence Day, which is observed on the date of the Declaration of Independence, which explained the reasons for the passage by Continental Congress two days before of the resolution of independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland of the Thirteen American Colonies as States, some thoughts on the American Revolution are currently relevant. The American Revolution had begun in response to a tax levied on the colonists in 1765 by the British Parliament to pay for defense against the French, who held parts of North America. The American colonists did not object either to defense against the French, or paying taxes, but resented the lack of representation in Parliament that deprived them of their ability to consent to taxation and its particular from of imposition, unlike their fellow British subjects in the British Isles. In the U.K. Britons were represented by over 600 Members of Parliament, but Americans, who numbered around a third that of Britons, were not represented at all. There were not even any non-voting delegates from any of the American colonies, including the other British North American colonies or possessions around the world, or even a collective delegate for the North American colonies, which the Americans regarded as unfair. The distance of thousands of miles and the slow pace of travel meant that the Members of Parliament had no familiarity with the American Colonies whose interests they represented in abstentia. The British Parliament had been founded in the 13th Century through the Magna Carta, which limited the absolute power of the King. It was strengthened after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 that deposed an absolutist monarch and further limited royal power. After an interregnum of anarchy, civil war and republican government, and a restoration of monarchy, through the unwritten British Constitution, the King governed through a prime minister, with the Parliament acting as the national legislature. But King George II influenced his Prime Minister to rule tyrannically, as did his colonial Royal Governors. Instead of resisting such abuses, the Sovereign’s supporters in Parliament became complicit in enacting authoritarian laws against the rebellious Americans, over the loyal opposition of the Whigs like Edmund Burke, the father of modern conservatism. The lack of a legislative remedy encouraged the American Colonists to change their goal at the start of the Revolution from a peaceful protest in favor of equal recognition of their natural rights toward independence from the United Kingdom. The Declaration of Independence expressed a litany of the abuses committed by the British monarchy against the American Colonists. Thus, the British oppression of the American Colonists represents an example of the danger when the Executive Branch of government is authoritarian and the Legislative Branch fails to act as a check on it. As Americans observe the start of the 250th year of their independence from the British they would profit by recalling the Spirit of 1776 and defending vigorously against the current threats to equality, liberty and representative government by an autocratic federal Executive and a complicit Legislature.