Deportation protections promised by Obama in the process of being legally undone: you didn’t have to be Nostradamus to see that coming

You could see it coming like a Mack truck if you base your trust in the Democratic Party on its history. When Obama issued an executive order giving deportation protection to those brought to the US as children & later to their undocumented parents, it was certain to be a matter of time before they found a way to reverse that order. And when they did earlier this year, they had the names & addresses of tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants so they know just where to pick them up.

Twenty-six US states sued to undo the Obama order & today an appeals court upheld an earlier court injunction to block the plan while it works its way through the courts.

You can parse the legalities of this maneuver till the cows come home. And when you finish it all adds up to a con job. Deportations under Obama have dwarfed those under earlier regimes–including George Bush. Why the hell would he deport tens of thousands at the same time he is offering something less than amnesty with no commitments?

Hillary Clinton the populist and her aristocratic supporters

Lynn Forester de Rothschild (WPA Pool:Getty Images) May 26 2015

Hillary Clinton, whose career has taken her from legal counsel for Walmart to brokering sweatshops in Haiti & elsewhere, is now trying to position herself as a populist. She’s made millions in speaking fees, primarily for addressing corporations, & avoids accountability by turning fees over to the Clinton Foundation.

According to her speaking contract (obtained by a news agency in Utah when she spoke there), she controls the rights to videos & transcripts of her speeches. That would explain why none of her corporate speeches appear on YouTube & those which do are campaign speeches defending Black, women’s, immigrant rights–something she has never actually done in over 35 years of being a politician. Unless words now equal deeds. Because it’s damn hard to defend women’s rights & also promote Walmart & sweatshops. And the same goes for her vaunted role in children’s rights.

The Clintons are irredeemably corrupt, reflected in the finances of their Foundation. It appears many US power operatives are concerned this will boomerang on & discredit the office of US president. Otherwise we wouldn’t know much about it. But the Clintons & their powerful supporters are not going down without a fight. They’re calling out the big guns of capitalism to defend them & the first volley was fired yesterday by Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild (phony-assed aristocratic title included for emphasis) in the Huntington Post in an article titled “Back From Africa With Eyes Wide Open.”

Lady Lynn isn’t much of a thinker; she’s an entrepreneur & a fixer for modern capitalism. So the article in defense of the Clinton Foundation charities in Africa is sentimental white savior crap. Rothschild has long connections to the Clintons as a functionary in the Clinton regime & a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton.

The question is, how do the Clintons expect to maintain a populist image when they have to draw on European aristocrats to defend them? This photo is Lady Lynn with Chuckles Windsor & Christine Lagarde of the IMF at the Conference on Inclusive Capitalism last May in England. Going to Africa for a few photo ops with Black children is an old trick of the British moochocracy which the Clintons are now using to clean up their image. Does it get more damning than that!?

(Photo by WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Wither goes Greek immigration policy?

Syrian immigrant in Greece taking slefie (Yannis Behrakis:Reuters) May 26 2015

There aren’t many light moments in the immigration crises but humans will be humans. This Syrian refugee disembarking from the dinghy just crossed with her family from Turkey to the Greek island of Kos & in a moment of triumphalism is taking a selfie. Probably to confirm that she hasn’t drowned.

There’s little current information on what immigration policy the Greek government will pursue. The previous regime was barbaric with a barrier wall along the Turkish border, filthy overcrowded detention centers, assaults on immigrants & raids of their neighborhoods. The regime fomented xenophobia & ethnic nationalism–emboldening neo-Nazi extremists like the Golden Dawn party–in a country devastated by neoliberal scorched earth austerity policies.

In 2012 the regime instituted an anti-immigration strategy called Operation Xenios Zeus which unleashed police using ethnic profiling to accost thousands who looked “foreign” for identity checks. In the first seven months of its existence, police rounded up nearly 85,000 “foreigners” & took them to police stations to verify documents. Many dark-skinned tourists were caught in the dragnets. One human rights official said the number of people stopped & detained was “mind-boggling.” According to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), 45,500 refugees were arrested by Greek police just in 2014.

Greece is the first line of European Union (EU) defense against immigrants entering Europe & it’s certain the regime colluded with the EU in its draconian immigration policies–particularly in the arduous process of applying for asylum. Greece had the lowest acceptance rate of asylum requests in the EU when for thousands of refugees safe deportation to their home countries was impossible & many remained locked up in stinking jails or destitute on the streets.

On its election in January 2015, SYRIZA promised different policies for immigrants. The SYRIZA minister for immigration announced reforms including the immediate release of unaccompanied minors & “their safe removal” (whatever that means); abolishing the compulsory 18-month detention of refugees & closing down all detention centers; granting Greek citizenship to second generation immigrants born in Greece; simplifying & expediting the asylum application process; ending deportations; & “disrupting” Operation Xenios Zeus. Disrupting Operation Xenios Zeus is of course, not enough; it needs to be dismantled. Otherwise none of the other reforms hold water.

Now that SYRIZA is bending to the EU on continuing austerity measures, it is certain beyond a shadow of a doubt the EU is putting the screws on Greece to maintain the immigration barbarisms of the former regime. The EU will not be militarily assaulting refugees trying to enter Spain & Italy while letting tens of thousands enter Greece & proceed on to other European countries because the immigration route would just shift to Greece. This suggests Greece may need more than a new parliament to address austerity & immigration; it more likely requires a social revolution beginning with SYRIZA mobilizing its people against the EU & IMF.

The EU can take their agreements & stuff them. Immigration is a human right. Open the borders.

(Photo by Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)