It's time that Congress and the president devise a new strategy for managing our forests. Unfortunately, money won't bring back what was lost to the flames, nor will it prevent history from repeating itself. President Clinton announced that he would help make amends by doling out $ 150 million in emergency assistance. The people who live in and around the forests are paying the highest price for this mismanagement. You can thank the federal government for decades of fire suppression and anti-logging polices that promoted raging fires in forests of crowded, dry and dead trees. You may think that dry weather is the cause, but think again. WASHINGTON - The nation has watched while lives have been lost, homes destroyed and millions of acres of our national forests charred this summer. Published in the News and Observer (Raleigh, NC) ĭistributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service Keystone Crossroads is a statewide reporting collaborative of WITF, WPSU and WESA, led by WHYY. It also points to a new precedent for reevaluating who really needs to be detained, citing a report that the Berks County Jail has already released 50-60 non-violent offenders who had already served a minimum sentence as a preventative measure. It requests the immediate release of families and the prevention of new families from entering. The lawsuit alleges that current conditions violate the Fifth Amendment, the Administrative Procedures Act, and a legal settlement called Flores that protects the health and safety of minors in immigration custody. “The deportation machine has not stopped … and so it then forces all of these other segments, lawyers, judges, whatever to be put at risk,” she said. “Most of the people there have coughs,” said Jackie Kline, an attorney with ALDEA, who called it “surreal” that immigration detention continues, as do hearings for detained clients, as other courts are shutting down. ICE has released some guidance about the steps it has taken to reduce the risk of transmitting COVID-19 to people in its custody, but has not yet provided a response to a request for comment.Įven under normal circumstances, it’s not uncommon for families transferred into ICE detention to be sick, often due to conditions on the trek to the United States or while waiting in Mexico to enter. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees, and a hunger strike in Newark, New Jersey. The lawsuit follows another one filed in Washington State, where the ACLU has requested the release of U.S. The reality of living in close, confined quarters, often with multiple families sharing rooms and an alleged lack of additional cleaning or sanitary precautions create “a tinderbox that, once sparked, will create a crisis that threatens the lives of women, men and children,” write the attorneys. There are thousands of people in these centers in Karnes and Dilley, Texas, and 16 families in the Berks Family Residential Center, outside Reading, Pa., according to advocates. “Respondents have failed to protect one of the most vulnerable populations in their charge: noncitizen asylum-seeking families in family detention,” write lawyers with ALDEA (People’s Justice Center) and the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services. Advocates say the families - held for either civil charges or awaiting asylum decisions - could be monitored remotely, as is already the case for many immigrants. The suit urges a federal judge to compel their release. Here’s how.Ī lawsuit has been filed in federal court on behalf of 56 immigrant families held in detention centers in Pennsylvania and Texas, alleging they are “recklessly exposing” children and their parents to the coronavirus. » It’s time to get serious about social distancing. » Day-by-day look at coronavirus disease cases in Pa. Rather than chase every update, we’ll try to keep things in context and focus on helping you make decisions. With our coronavirus coverage, our goal is to equip you with the information you need. Now, it’s time to find better ways to interact with you and ensure we meet your high standards of what a credible media organization should be. The days of journalism’s one-way street of simply producing stories for the public have long been over.
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