Daily Dispatch 1/7/2019

Read more about InAlienable.
Support the InAlienable program!

InAlienable
Daily Dispatch
January 7, 2019

Today: At 2:30pm EST the Congressional delegation looking into child deaths in CBP custody will give a press briefing, which will probably be livestreamed here.

The Daily is back!

And during the break, the news has been immigration policy wall-to-wall – and the government remains on shutdown.

Welcome to 2019!!!

Shutdown Ironies:

Irony # 1:  The shutdown has forced a suspension of the E-Verify system that employers use to verify the immigration status of potential employees.

Irony #2:  The already back-logged immigration courts now face further delays thanks to furloughed judges.

Irony #3:  Those who enforce Trump’s immigration policies at the border, CBP and ICE, are working without pay.

Shutdown Absurdities:

After Nancy Pelosi described a border wall as an “immorality,” Trump and his staff turned to the Vatican as its model.

Trump: “When they say the wall is immoral, well then you better … got to do something about the Vatican, because the Vatican has the biggest wall of them all.”

[Fact check: not the biggest wall]

Sarah Sanders: “I wonder if she’s [Pelosi’s] going to go on a crusade and take down all the fences and walls across this country. I certainly hope not. I’m sure that the people that have them around their homes, the institutions that have them, whether it’s the Vatican or anywhere else, are not going to be real happy with the fact that Nancy Pelosi is calling their wall and their security immoral."

[Fact check: this argument will earn you a zero from your freshman rhetoric teacher]

Shutdown Bullshit:

Sarah Sanders claims that 4,000 known or suspected terrorists were apprehended last year after entering the US through the southern border.

Actual number of known or suspected terrorists apprehended at the southern border in 2018: zero

Shutdown Tantrums:

Trump has threatened to keep the shutdown going for “months or even years” if he doesn’t get his wall.

And if he still doesn’t get his wall, he will declare a national emergency in order to use Department of Defense money to build it anyway, so there.

Related: “What the President Could Do If He Declares a State of Emergency” from The Atlantic (this lengthy article is terrifying).

More Recommended Reads:

#a7ca43334709">Forbes: “The Outlook On Immigration In 2019”

NYT: “Migrants’ Despair is Growing at US Border. So Are Smugglers’ Profits”

NBC News: “22 immigrants died in ICE detention centers during the past 2 years”