Weekend Review | September 23, 2022 Video ScriptaRoonie
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Weekend Review | September 23, 2022 Florida Governor Uses Desperate People as
Props in Martha’s Vineyard Stunt Last week Florida Governor Ron DeSantis used
more than $600,000 taxpayer dollars to trick nearly 50 migrants to board chartered flights
from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, a remote island in southern Massachusetts.
Since that time, reports have emerged that the state of Florida hired a woman named “Perla”
to mislead the migrants by telling them that they would be dropped off at a shelter in
Boston, and that there would be jobs and housing waiting for them when they arrived.
The migrants were informed midair that they would actually be landing on Martha’s Vineyard,
a small vacation enclave off the coast of Massachusetts, three hours by bus and ferry
from Boston.
Immigration attorneys representing the migrants pointed out that many of the migrants had
been given court dates in San Antonio, Texas, some within a matter of days, yet had been
flown across the country to a remote island in a cynical attempt to prevent the migrants
from attending their hearings and thus being ordered removed from the U.S.
The actions taken by DeSantis have prompted at least two lawsuits, a criminal investigation,
and calls from the Chair of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Homeland Security Committee
for the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security to investigate.
Republicans and Democrats Differ on Top Priorities for Immigration
Republicans and Democrats differ sharply over what America’s immigration policy priorities
should be, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center.
In the survey of 7,647 U.S. adults, 91% of Republicans said securing the U.S.-Mexico
border should be a top priority, while fewer Democrats (59%) said the same.
Republicans also placed greater importance on deportations of people illegally in the
country (79%), with nearly half calling it very important.
Fewer Democrats (39%) view deportations as important, with only 12% calling it very important.
The majority of Democrats (80%) say creating a legal path to citizenship should be a top
priority compared to just 37% of Republicans.
Americans from both parties say taking in refugees fleeing war and violence should be
a priority, although more Democrats (85%) than Republicans (58%) view it as very important.
Biden Administration Considers Multimillion-Dollar Payout for Families Separated at the Border
The Biden administration is considering a widespread multimillion-dollar settlement
for immigrant families that were separated at the border during Trump’s presidency.
If approved, the plan could grant around $450,000 per person in compensation.
The strategy aims to resolve a large number of pending lawsuits filed by the victims of
President Trump’s “zero-tolerance policy.”
According to official government figures, about 3,900 children were separated from their
parents at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2018, as part of the Trump administration’s efforts
to reduce border crossings by forcibly separating children of all ages from their parents.
Government officials failed to properly track the separated families being broken up, with
no system to match children to their parents, resulting in hundreds of families still be
separated today.
NVC Releases Green Card Backlog Report for September
The National Visa Center released its monthly report on the current immigrant visa backlog.
Overall, the backlog fell by a little more than 4,000 cases, which represents a 1% drop.
Just over 32,000 interviews were scheduled in September, which is lower than August’s
number of scheduled interviews, which clocked in at 32,888 versus September’s 32,175 interviews.
Though this number is somewhat lower than August, it is still higher than the median
number of interviews scheduled during the past 12 months (28,447).
The NVC reports that fewer applicants’ cases were deemed to be “documentarily complete”
in September, meaning that all the required forms and documents have been submitted to
and accepted by the NVC and that the case is ready for an interview to be scheduled.
The number of documentarily complete cases fell from 421,668 to 416,856 this month, making
September the fourth month running that the number of cases ready to be scheduled for
an interview fell.
Meta and TikTok Profit from Human Smuggling Ads
Facebook Marketplace is making a profit from classified ads that promise safe passage from
Mexico to the U.S. Meta does not monitor ads related to human smuggling even though many
of them are scams, which take advantage of people in vulnerable situations.
According to a report published last week, human smugglers (frequently called coyotes)
often advertise their “services” on Facebook Marketplace, as well as in local or regional
buy-sell groups on Facebook, “where their offers to take people across the border mingle
with ads for things like motorcycles and used cell phones,” giving migrants “the false
impression that arranging a trip to the U.S. is as easy as ordering household products
online.”
Coyotes also make frequent use of WhatsApp — which is also owned by Meta — to communicate
with migrants.
The report also found that coyotes openly advertise passage to the U.S., despite the
platform’s content policy prohibiting posts promoting human smuggling.