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Downward Christian Soldiers

Father Charles Coughlin, 1930s

On January 14 1940, the FBI arrested 18 men in New York City accused of plotting the overthrow of the U.S. government. Fourteen were snatched up in their homes in Brooklyn, the others in The Bronx and Queens. Searches yielded more than a dozen Springfield rifles, a shotgun, some handguns, thousands of rounds of ammunition, and the materials for homemade bombs. J. Edgar Hoover said they were plotting a terrorist campaign targeting transportation, power, and communications facilities; their goal was to rouse the military into staging a coup, placing a strong dictator like Hitler or Mussolini in power, and cleansing the country of Jews.  

The men were mostly of German or Irish descent, and ranged in age from 18 to 38. If employed (a few weren’t), they held low-end jobs, including an elevator mechanic, a telephone lineman, a chauffeur, a couple of salesmen, a couple of office clerks. The 18-year-old was a student. Most troubling was the fact that six of them were National Guardsmen.

They were all followers of a Father Coughlin-inspired movement called the Christian Front. In his mid-1930s heyday, Coughlin was arguably the most powerful pro-Fascist voice in America. An Irish Catholic originally from Canada, he had first turned to radio in the 1920s simply as a way to expand his ministry beyond his tiny congregation in Royal Oaks. He had a strong radio voice, and when CBS started syndicating his weekly sermons in 1929 it was an instant success. The crash and start of the Depression politicized him. His condemnations of Wall Street and President Hoover brought him tens of thousands of fan letters a week, and his high praises for Hoover’s opponent FDR surely had an impact on the 1932 elections. Then, when the invitation he craved to sit among President Roosevelt’s circle of advisors didn’t come, he turned bitter as a jilted lover. He began denouncing Roosevelt, his New Deal, his Jew York advisors, and his friends in the labor movement as all facets of an international Jewish-Communist conspiracy to destroy Christianity and democracy. He also praised Franco, Mussolini, and Hitler for defending their people against this spreading evil.

Coughlin’s call for a “Christian Front” to combat the Communists’ mid-1930s Popular Front coalition with other groups on the left resonated with the Depression-driven anger and paranoia of many Americans, especially in cities like Boston and New York with large communities of lower- and lower-middle class Irish Catholics, who tended to be shut out of other right-wing movements precisely because they were Irish and Catholic. At his peak, Coughlin had tens of millions of listeners to his Sunday radio sermons, a million readers of his weekly magazine Social Justice, and received millions of dollars in small donations.

By 1938, rabid anti-Semitism had become the centerpiece of Coughlin’s message. That year, at a Christian Front rally in The Bronx, he allegedly gave the Nazi salute and declared, “When we get through with the Jews in America, they’ll think the treatment they received in Germany was nothing.” In Social Justice he reprinted the anti-Semitic hoax The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which also topped Henry Ford’s list of favorite reading. In the autumn of 1938, when Coughlin said the Jews had brought Kristallnacht on themselves, radio stations, including WMCA in New York, dropped him. Several thousand Fronters “picketed the station, its advertisers, and Jewish-owned stores throughout the city,” historian Robert A. Rosenbaum writes. “The pickets returned every Sunday afternoon for many months. In the meantime, gangs of Christian Fronters roamed the streets and subways, peddling copies of Social Justice, distributing anti-Semitic leaflets, and orating on street corners, while harassing and assaulting people they took to be Jewish.” The city’s police force, which was nearly two-thirds Irish, turned a blind eye; some number of them were Christian Frontiers themselves.

The Front thrived in parishes in all of New York City’s boroughs. Some of the first Front meetings took place in a church hall near Columbus Circle, and some of the most frequent and well-attended were in The Bronx. In Brooklyn, Father Francis Joseph Healy, the pastor of the St. Joseph’s parish in Prospect Heights, was also the editor of the Brooklyn diocese’s weekly paper, The Tablet, which he made a platform for extremely anti-Communist, pro-Fascist, and pro-Coughlin thought. After Father Healy’s death in 1940, his managing editor Patrick Scanlan continued the paper’s reactionary slant. Scanlan ran Coughlin’s rants on the front page. Healy’s successor at St. Joseph’s, Father Edward Curran, was also a major supporter of Father Coughlin and other pro-Fascist and isolationist groups. During the war in Spain Father Curran wrote dozens of pro-Franco columns for arch-conservative publications around the country.

By 1939 small cells of Fronters in Manhattan and Brooklyn were calling themselves “sports clubs,” though the only sport they practiced was target shooting at rifle ranges. The Guardsmen in the group evidently pilfered the rifles and ammo from their posts, and trained other Frontiers in how to use them. 


Along with the cops and Guardsmen, the Front cells were also peppered with spies. The FBI had informants keeping tabs on them. Two independent investigators would write very successful books in which they claimed to have infiltrated the Front as well, and dozens of other underground hate groups. Richard Rollins’ I Find Treason would be published by William Morrow in 1941; John Roy Carlson’s similar Under Cover would be a runaway bestseller for E. P. Dutton two years later, galloping through 16 printings in its first six months. Both writers used pseudonyms. Carlson was actually Arthur Derounian, an Armenian immigrant. Rollins was apparently Isidore Rothberg, an investigator for Congressman Samuel Dickstein of the House Special Committee on Un-American Activities. Partly because the writers used pseudonyms while naming scores of individuals they claimed were pro-Hitler and pro-Fascist, both books were widely denounced on the right as fabrications and smear campaigns.


Derounian wrote that he was riding the subway one day in 1938 when he picked up a leaflet of “bitterly anti-Semitic quotations” published by something called the Nationalist Press Association on East 116th Street in Italian East Harlem. He decided to research, and found himself exploring a vast underground world of wannabe Hitlers and Mussolinis, society matron super-patriots, racists, Anglophobes, White Russians, and assorted conspiracy theorists and kooks.
 Born in 1909, Derounian had grown up in another world of hate. After struggling to stay alive as Armenians in Greece at a time of chaos and slaughter in the Balkans, his family fled to New York in 1921. Arthur learned English and earned a degree in journalism at NYU in 1926. In 1933 he learned that the turmoil in the Balkans had followed him across the ocean, when the archbishop of New York’s Armenian Orthodox Catholics, while serving Christmas Mass in his Washington Heights church, was stabbed to death by radical Armenian nationalists opposed to his politics.

So when Derounian read that hate sheet on the subway in 1938, he was primed to follow up. The 116th Street address was an old tenement with a barber shop on the ground floor. The Nationalist Press “office” was a dingy back room stacked to the stained ceiling with right-wing books, newspapers and pamphlets. Poking around in the gloom were a few Italian men and Peter Stahrenberg, a tall blond Aryan type “with blunt features and a coarse-lipped, brutal mouth,” who wore a khaki shirt and a black tie with a pearl-studded swastika tie tack. Stahrenberg was the publisher of the National American, a pro-Hitler newspaper whose striking logo was an American Indian giving the Nazi salute before a large swastika. He was also the head of the American National-Socialist Party. Derounian, calling himself George Pagnanelli and expressing interest in the “patriotic movement,” wormed his way into Stahrenberg’s confidence.

As he explored Stahrenberg’s twilight world, Derounian claimed, he found pro-Nazis and pro-Fascists all over New York City, holding meetings and rallies in every borough. It was a topsy-turvy world where street thugs from the city’s poorest neighborhoods mingled with wealthy Park Avenue crackpots, and Irish Catholic Fronters convinced that Communism was an international Jewish plot sat in the same meetings with Protestant zealots convinced that the Vatican was a Jewish front. He met rabidly anti-Communist D.A.R. socialites, and retired military officers who were certain that FDR and the Jew Dealers were leading the nation to ruin. He met the prominent conservative organizer Catherine Curtis, introducing himself as George Pagnanelli; she kept calling him Mr. Pagliacci. He even found black pro-Nazis in Harlem. Some were attracted by Hitler’s anti-Semitism; others simply cheered the idea of a white man making trouble for other whites.

When the Christian Front clique was arraigned in Brooklyn’s federal courthouse in February, they all pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy and theft of government property. The lawyer for 12 of them was Leo Healy – Father Healy’s brother. A crowd jeered and booed as they were perp-walked into the courthouse. Winchell and La Guardia both derided them as “bums,” La Guardia adding that if they were the best the enemies of democracy could muster, no one need lose any sleep. But the defendants also had their sympathizers. Father Curran was the keynote speaker at a large rally in Prospect Hall to express support for them.  

Fourteen defendants were left when the trial began in April; one of the original 18 had committed suicide, and charges against three others were dropped. As the trial sputtered along through May, it began to appear that the FBI and prosecutors hadn’t built a very strong case. When the proceedings stumbled to a close on Monday June 24, the jury acquitted nine of the defendants and pronounced themselves hung on the other five.


It was a major embarrassment for Hoover. The Front and their supporters cheered it as a great victory, and would continue to spread hate and violence well into the war years. Through 1942 and 1943 there would be numerous reports in the press of roving gangs of young men, mostly identified as Irish and affiliated with the Front, beating and sometimes even knifing Jews in neighborhoods like Flatbush, Washington Heights and the South Bronx, where Irish and Jewish communities abutted. Many shops, synagogues and cemeteries were vandalized. Jewish leaders pleaded with Mayor La Guardia and Police Commissioner Valentine, but they took little action.

Coughlin would rant on into 1942, when the federal government shut down Social Justice as a seditious publication, and the Archbishop of Detroit finally ordered him to stop all political activity. Father Curran, however, continued undeterred, making anti-Semitic, anti-war speeches to Frontiers and others through the entire war.

by John Strausbaugh

The environmental nonprofit GreenRoots, the Conservation Law Foundation and Lawyers for Civil Rights filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for allegedly violating the 1964 Civil Rights Act when it declined to investigate language access concerns during the on-going siting process of a controversial electrical substation in East Boston.

“This lawsuit represents a failure of the federal Environmental Protection Agency to uphold the Civil Rights of environmental justice communities,” says GreenRoots Executive Director Roseann Bongiovanni. “No one should have to fight simply to access information and participate in decision making that affects one's health and environment. Yet, Black, Brown and Immigrant communities have proven that time and time again, they are excluded from these ‘public’ processes.”

The lawsuit comes less than a year after the groups first filed a complaint against the EPA and asked it to look into potential discriminatory practices in the Department of Public Utilities and the Energy Facilities Siting Board (EFSB), the two state bodies charged with permitting the project.

Who is he.

Ben Bernanke

14th Chair of Federal Reserve

Ben Shalom Bernanke (/bərˈnæŋki/ bər-NANG-kee; born December 13, 1953) is an American economist at the Brookings Institution who served two terms as the 14th Chair of the Federal Reserve, from 2006 to 2014. During his tenure as chair, Bernanke oversaw the Federal Reserve's response to the late-2000s financial crisis, for which he was named the 2009 Time Person of the Year. Before becoming Federal Reserve chair, Bernanke was a tenured professor at Princeton University and chaired the department of economics there from 1996 to September 2002, when he went on public service leave.

Quick Facts 14th Chair of the Federal Reserve, President ...

From August 5, 2002, until June 21, 2005, he was a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, proposed the Bernanke Doctrine, and first discussed "the Great Moderation" — the theory that traditional business cycles have declined in volatility in recent decades through structural changes that have occurred in the international economy, particularly increases in the economic stability of developing nations, diminishing the influence of macroeconomic (monetary and fiscal) policy.

Bernanke then served as chairman of President George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers before President Bush nominated him to succeed Alan Greenspan as chairman of the United States Federal Reserve. His first term began February 1, 2006. Bernanke was confirmed for a second term as chairman on January 28, 2010, after being renominated by President Barack Obama, who later referred to him as "the epitome of calm." His second term ended January 31, 2014, when he was succeeded by Janet Yellen on February 3, 2014.

Bernanke wrote about his time as chairman of the Federal Reserve in his 2015 book, The Courage to Act, in which he revealed that the world's economy came close to collapse in 2007 and 2008. Bernanke asserts that it was only the novel efforts of the Fed (cooperating with other agencies and agencies of foreign governments) that prevented an economic catastrophe greater than the Great Depression.

Family and childhood

Bernanke was born in Augusta, Georgia, and was raised on East Jefferson Street in Dillon, South Carolina. His father Philip was a pharmacist and part-time theater manager. His mother Edna was an elementary school teacher. Bernanke has two younger siblings. His brother, Seth, is a lawyer in Charlotte, North Carolina. His sister, Sharon, is a longtime administrator at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

The Bernankes were one of the few Jewish families in Dillon and attended Ohav Shalom, a local synagogue; Bernanke learned Hebrew as a child from his maternal grandfather, Harold Friedman, a professional hazzan (service leader), shochet, and Hebrew teacher. Bernanke's father and uncle owned and managed a drugstore they purchased from Bernanke's paternal grandfather, Jonas Bernanke.

Jonas Bernanke was born in Boryslav, Austria-Hungary (today part of Ukraine), on January 23, 1891. He immigrated to the United States from Przemyśl, Poland, and arrived at Ellis Island, aged 30, on June 30, 1921, with his wife Pauline, aged 25. On the ship's manifest, Jonas's occupation is listed as "clerk" and Pauline's as "doctor med".

The family moved to Dillon from New York in the 1940s. Bernanke's mother gave up her job as a schoolteacher when her son was born and worked at the family drugstore. Ben Bernanke also worked there sometimes.

Young adult

As a teenager, Bernanke worked construction on a hospital and waited tables at a restaurant at nearby South of the Border, a roadside attraction, amusement park and fireworks retailer, in his hometown of Dillon, before leaving for college. To support himself throughout college, he continued to work during the summers at South of the Border.

Religion

As a teenager in the 1960s, Bernanke would help roll the Torah scrolls in his local synagogue. Although he keeps his beliefs private, his friend Mark Gertler, chairman of New York University's economics department, says they are "embedded in who he (Bernanke) is." Once Bernanke was at Harvard for his freshman year, Fellow Dillon native Kenneth Manning took him to Brookline for Rosh Hashanah services.

Education

Bernanke was educated at East Elementary, J.V. Martin Junior High, and Dillon High School, where he was class valedictorian and played saxophone in the marching band. Since Dillon High School did not offer calculus at the time, Bernanke taught it to himself. Bernanke scored 1590 out of 1600 on the SAT and was a National Merit Scholar. He also was a contestant in the 1965 National Spelling Bee.

Bernanke attended Harvard College in 1971, where he lived in Winthrop House, as did the future CEO of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with an A.B. degree, and later with an A.M. in economics summa cum laude in 1975. He received a Ph.D. degree in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1979 after completing and defending his dissertation, Long-Term Commitments, Dynamic Optimization, and the Business Cycle. Bernanke's thesis adviser was the future governor of the Bank of Israel, Stanley Fischer, and his readers included Irwin S. Bernstein, Rüdiger Dornbusch, Robert Solow, and Peter Diamond of MIT and Dale Jorgenson of Harvard.

Personal life

Ben and Anna Bernanke

Bernanke met his wife, Anna, a schoolteacher, on a blind date. She was a student at Wellesley College, and he was in graduate school at MIT.[citation needed] The Bernankes have two children, Joel and Alyssa. He is an ardent fan of the Washington Nationals baseball team, and frequently attends games at Nationals Park.

When Bernanke left Stanford to accept a position at Princeton, he and his family moved to Montgomery Township, New Jersey, in 1985, where Bernanke's children attended the local public schools. Bernanke served for six years as a member of the board of education of the Montgomery Township School District.

In 2009, The Wall Street Journal reported that Bernanke was a victim of identity theft, a spreading crime the Federal Reserve has for years issued warnings about.

Academic and government career (1979–2006)

Bernanke meeting with United States President Barack Obama.

Bernanke taught at the Stanford Graduate School of Business from 1979 until 1985, was a visiting professor at New York University and went on to become a tenured professor at Princeton University in the Department of Economics. He chaired that department from 1996 until September 2002, when he went on public service leave. He resigned his position at Princeton July 1, 2005.

Bernanke served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 2002 to 2005. In one of his first speeches as a Governor, entitled "Deflation: Making Sure It Doesn't Happen Here", he outlined what has been referred to as the Bernanke Doctrine.

As a member of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System on February 20, 2004, Bernanke gave a speech in which he postulated that we are in a new era called the Great Moderation, where modern macroeconomic policy has decreased the volatility of the business cycle to the point that it should no longer be a central issue in economics.

In June 2005, Bernanke was named chairman of President George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, and resigned as Fed Governor. The appointment was largely viewed as a test run to ascertain if Bernanke could be Bush's pick to succeed Greenspan as Fed chairman the next year. He held the post until January 2006.

Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve

Bernanke testifying before the House Financial Services Committee responding to a question on February 10, 2009.

On February 1, 2006, Bernanke began a fourteen-year term as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and a four-year term as chairman (after having been nominated by President Bush in late 2005). By virtue of the chairmanship, he sat on the Financial Stability Oversight Board that oversees the Troubled Asset Relief Program. He also served as chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee, the System's principal monetary policy making body.

His first months as chairman of the Federal Reserve System were marked by difficulties communicating with the media. An advocate of more transparent Fed policy and clearer statements than Greenspan had made, he had to back away from his initial idea of stating clearer inflation goals as such statements tended to affect the stock market. Maria Bartiromo disclosed on CNBC comments from their private conversation at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. She reported that Bernanke said investors had misinterpreted his comments as indicating that he was "dovish" on inflation. He was sharply criticized for making public statements about Fed direction, which he said was a "lapse in judgment."

Financial crisis of 2007–2008

Bernanke (left) in September 2008 as President Bush speaks about the economy

Further information: Financial crisis of 2007–08

As the Great Recession deepened, Bernanke oversaw some unorthodox measures. Under his guidance, the Fed lowered its funds interest rate from 5.25% to 0.0% within less than a year. When this was considered insufficient to abate the liquidity crisis, the Fed initiated quantitative easing, creating $1.3 trillion from November 2008 to June 2010 and using the created money to buy financial assets from banks and from the government.

Second term

Bernanke answers questions in 2013 at FOMC press conference

On August 25, 2009, President Obama announced he would nominate Bernanke to a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve. In a short statement on Martha's Vineyard, with Bernanke standing at his side, Obama said Bernanke's background, temperament, courage and creativity helped to prevent another Great Depression in 2008.

Thursday, May 20, 2021

For Migrant Children in Federal Care, a ‘Sense of Desperation’ (NYT) In a federal shelter in Dallas, migrant children sleep in a windowless convention center room under fluorescent lights that never go dark. At a military base in El Paso, teenagers pile onto bunk cots, and some say they have gone days without bathing. And in Erie, Pa., problems began emerging within days of the shelter’s creation: “Fire safety system is a big concern,” an internal report noted. Some of the hot water heaters were not working, and lice was “a big issue and seems to be increasing.” Early this year, children crossing the southwestern border in record numbers were crammed into Customs and Border Protection’s cold-floored, jail-like detention facilities. They slept side by side on mats with foil blankets, almost always far longer than the legal limit of 72 hours. Republicans declared it a crisis. Democrats and immigration groups denounced the conditions, which erupted into an international embarrassment for President Biden, who had campaigned on a return to compassion in the immigration system. The administration responded by rapidly setting up temporary, emergency shelters, including some that could house thousands of children. But the next potential crisis is coming into view. “I know the administration wants to take a victory lap for moving children out of Border Patrol stations—and they deserve credit for doing that,” said Leecia Welch, a lawyer and the senior director of the legal advocacy and child welfare practice at the National Center for Youth Law, a nonprofit law firm focused on low-income children. “But the truth is, thousands of traumatized children are still lingering in massive detention sites on military bases or convention centers, and many have been relegated to unsafe and unsanitary conditions.”

Ceasefire calls and U.S. credibility (Foreign Policy) As the bombings [in Gaza] continue, the human toll is becoming clearer. More than 52,000 people in Gaza have been displaced by Israel’s aerial assault, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Tuesday, with most seeking refuge in U.N.-run schools. The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) confirmed that 11 of the more than 60 children killed so far by Israeli airstrikes were participants in an NRC program helping children deal with trauma. Even if hostilities soon end, the Biden administration’s resistance to a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire has tested U.S. credibility. “They pledged to come back and support the U.N. system and multilateralism,” one council diplomat said in a report by Foreign Policy’s Colum Lynch and Robbie Gramer. “We don’t see that happening now in the Security Council.” The episode also encouraged China to carve out a leadership role at the Security Council on Middle East issues, a topic where it usually takes a back seat, while at the same time allowing it to dodge questions on its actions in Xinjiang. Multiple reports appeared on Tuesday, attempting to shine light on Biden’s approach not to call publicly for a cease-fire. They depict an administration wary of getting on the bad side of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The tactic has been criticized as a misreading of U.S. leverage over an ally to which it provides significant military aid and political support. Shibley Telhami, writing in the Boston Globe, voiced some of that criticism on Tuesday. “If an American president cannot leverage this extraordinary and unprecedented support to advance core American values,” Telhami writes, “what hope is there for succeeding anywhere else?”

Spain Sends Troops to African Enclave After Migrant Crossings Jump (NYT) Spain deployed troops, military trucks and helicopters in its North African enclave of Ceuta on Tuesday after thousands of people crossed over from Morocco, one of the largest movements of migrants reported in the area in recent years. More than 8,000 migrants, including nearly 2,000 minors, arrived on the beaches of Ceuta on Monday and Tuesday, mostly swimming or aboard inflatable boats, according to the Spanish authorities, who said that Spain had already sent back 4,000 people. The sudden arrival of thousands of people in Ceuta—more than had attempted the crossing in all the rest of the year so far—comes amid a deepening diplomatic spat between Spain and Morocco over the hospitalization in Spain of the leader of a rebel group that has fought for the independence of Western Sahara from Morocco. Videos broadcast on Spanish television on Tuesday appeared to show Moroccan border guards opening fences to the Spanish enclave. While Morocco has warned of “consequences” for harboring the rebel leader, it was not immediately clear if the spike in migration was linked to the diplomatic dispute.

Grand day for the French: Cafe and bistro terraces reopen (AP) It’s a grand day for the French. Cafe and restaurant terraces reopened Wednesday after a six-month coronavirus shutdown deprived residents of the essence of French “joie de vivre”—sipping coffee and red wine with friends. The French government is lifting restrictions incrementally to stave off a resurgence of COVID-19 and to give citizens back some of their world famous lifestyle. As part of the plan’s first stage, France’s 7 p.m. nightly curfew was pushed back to 9 p.m. and museums, theaters and cinemas reopened along with outdoor cafe terraces. France is not the first European country to start getting back a semblance of social and cultural life. Italy, Belgium, Hungary and other nations already allow outdoor dining while drinking and eating indoors began Monday in Britain.

Indian navy searches for 78 missing from barge sunk by storm (AP) Indian navy ships and helicopters searched in rough weather and seas Wednesday for 78 people still missing from a barge that sank off Mumbai as a deadly cyclone blew ashore this week. Navy Cdr. Alok Anand said 183 people were rescued within 24 hours by three ships and helicopters engaged in the operation. Cyclone Tauktae, the most powerful storm to hit the region in more than two decades, packed sustained winds of up to 210 kilometers (130 miles) per hour when it came ashore in Gujarat state late Monday. The storm left at least 25 dead in Gujarat and Maharashtra states. The Hindu newspaper Wednesday tallied more than 16,000 houses damaged in Gujarat state and trees and power poles uprooted.

How Myanmar's military moved in on the telecoms sector to spy on citizens (Reuters) In the months before the Myanmar military's Feb. 1 coup, the country's telecom and internet service providers were ordered to install intercept spyware that would allow the army to eavesdrop on the communications of citizens, sources with direct knowledge of the plan told Reuters. The technology gives the military the power to listen in on calls, view text messages and web traffic including emails, and track the locations of users without the assistance of the telecom and internet firms, the sources said. The directives are part of a sweeping effort by the army to deploy electronic surveillance systems and exert control over the internet with the aim of keeping tabs on political opponents, squashing protests and cutting off channels for any future dissent, they added.

Restrictions reimposed as virus resurges in much of Asia (AP) Taxi drivers are starved for customers, weddings are suddenly canceled, schools are closed, and restaurant service is restricted across much of Asia as the coronavirus makes a resurgence in countries where it had seemed to be well under control. Sparsely populated Mongolia has seen its death toll soar from 15 to 233, while Taiwan, considered a major success in battling the virus, has recorded more than 1,000 cases since last week and placed over 600,000 people in two-week medical isolation. Hong Kong and Singapore have postponed a quarantine-free travel bubble for a second time after an outbreak in Singapore of uncertain origin. China, which has all but stamped out local infections, has seen new cases apparently linked to contact with people arriving from abroad. The resurgence hasn’t come close to the carnage wrought in India and parts of Europe, but it is a keen reminder that the virus remains resilient.

Immigration In Japan Under Pressure (NYT) For months Japanese jailers said they ‘thought’ the young migrant from Sri Lanka was faking her illness, even as she wasted away before their eyes before dying alone in her cell. Wishma Rathayake had a lifelong fascination with Japan. She entered the country in the summer of 2017 to study Japanese at a school in the Tokyo suburbs, hoping eventually to teach English. She met another Sri Lankan student in Japan who became her boyfriend. Sadly, after a series of unwise decisions, unfortunate events, and a now-expired residence permit, she found herself in a detention center a few hours south of Tokyo, awaiting deportation. It was August 2020. While in detention she was threatened by her ex-boyfriend, now back in Sri Lanka. She thought she’d be safer in Japan, and with the encouragement of advisers at START, a local nonprofit, she decided to try to stay. That move irritated officials at the detention center, who demanded she change her mind. In late December Wishma fell ill with a fever. Within weeks she was having trouble eating, standing, and speaking. In late January 2021 a doctor prescribed her vitamins and painkillers, but they made her even sicker, so she filed for a provisional release. Detention centers had already released hundreds of healthy detainees due to coronavirus concerns, but in mid-February Wishma’s request was denied without explanation. She submitted a second request on medical grounds; by this time she was so weak she could barely sign the form. Despite the severity of her symptoms, officials waited until March 4 to take her to a hospital. Two days later the 33-year-old was dead.      Japan has a long history of hostility toward immigration. Despite being the world’s third-largest economy, it settles less than 1% of asylum applicants—just 47 in 2020. Critics of the country’s immigration system say most decisions are made in secret; detainees who have overstayed their visas can be held indefinitely, with little access to courts. Detainees who apply for asylum, as Wishma did, are particularly unwelcome. Critics say Wishma was the victim of an opaque and capricious bureaucracy that has nearly unchecked power over foreigners who run afoul of it. And while there have been other instances of inhumane treatment of foreigners that ended in death, especially for people of color, the particularly egregious circumstances of Wishma’s death have driven national outrage to a whole new level. Protesters have gathered almost daily in front of Parliament, and objections by opposition lawmakers have been unusually fierce.

Experts warn shuttered Australia is becoming a ‘hermit nation’ (AFP) Prime Minister Scott Morrison defended his “Fortress Australia” Covid-19 restrictions Tuesday, as experts warned that plans to keep the borders closed for another year will create a “hermit nation”. Last March, Australia took the unprecedented step of closing its borders to foreign visitors and banning its globetrotting citizens from leaving. That prompted the first population decline since World War I, stranded tens of thousands of Australian citizens overseas and separated hundreds of thousands of residents from family members. But the country now has almost no community transmission and life for most is relatively normal. And the government’s recent suggestion that borders could remain closed for another year has sparked fierce debate. Australian Medical Association president Omar Khorshid on Tuesday warned: “Australia cannot keep its international borders closed indefinitely.” A University of Sydney task force examining how Australia can safely reopen this week went further, warning the country “cannot continue to lock itself off from the world as a hermit nation indefinitely”.

Powerless (NYT) Abeer Ghanem, like many Gazans, long struggled to work around the long blackouts that blighted the besieged Palestinian enclave along the Mediterranean Sea. But with the outbreak of hostilities a week ago between Israel and the Hamas militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, she said, she now gets at best four hours of electricity a day, intermittently. When it comes on, her family scrambles to charge their lights and batteries for the long, sleepless nights punctuated by outgoing Hamas rockets and the thunder of Israeli airstrikes. A combination of fuel shortages, damage to the electricity supply lines running from Israel and an aerial bombardment that has torn apart local power lines means that many families are receiving at most three to four hours of electricity a day, according to Gaza’s power company. “What we have now for fuel will last for two or three days,” said Mohammed Thabet, a spokesman for the Electricity Distribution Co. of Gaza. The power shortages are compounding the daily misery for Gazans and are also taking a toll on the provision of water, sewage treatment and the ability of hospitals, swamped with casualties, to function. Even if supplies resume, the crisis has caused millions of dollars in infrastructure damage.

Palestinians go on strike as Israel-Hamas fighting rages (AP) Palestinians across Israel and the occupied territories went on strike in a rare collective protest Tuesday as Israeli missiles toppled a building in Gaza and militants in the Hamas-ruled territory fired dozens of rockets that killed two people. The general strike was a sign that the war could widen again after a spasm of communal violence in Israel and protests across the occupied West Bank last week. Although the strike was peaceful in many places, with shops in Jerusalem’s usually bustling Old City markets shuttered, violence erupted in cities in the West Bank. Hundreds of Palestinians burned tires in Ramallah and hurled stones at an Israeli military checkpoint. Troops fired tear gas, and protesters picked up some of the canisters and threw them back. Three protesters were killed and more than 140 wounded in clashes with Israeli troops in Ramallah, Bethlehem, Hebron and other cities, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The Israeli army said two soldiers were wounded by gunshots to the leg. The general strike was an uncommon show of unity by Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up 20% of its population.

Muslim Group, Emgage, That Hosts Homophobic Imams and Terrorist Defenders Endorses Joe Biden

Isn’t that 99.9% of imams if not all?

Emgage is one of the insidious groups seeding sharia-supporting Muslim candidates in towns and cities all across America.

Emgage also recently parted ways with one of its leaders who joked about blowing up a school that contained “white people.”

Joe Schoffstall

A George Soros-backed Muslim group, which cohosts a conference that in recent years drew speakers who called homosexuality a "disease" and defended terrorist groups, announced its endorsement of Joe Biden for president.

Emgage, which bills itself as the largest Muslim PAC in the country, on Thursday announced it would switch its endorsement from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) to Biden. The group cited Biden's promises to end President Donald Trump's travel bans, increase the refugee admissions cap, and overhaul the immigration system. Biden said he was "honored" to receive the endorsement.

Emgage has collaborated with a Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated group on events that in recent years attracted speakers who openly opposed LGBT rights and supported terror groups. Last year, Emgage became an official cohost of Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) conferences. ISNA was previously revealed to be part of the Muslim Brotherhood network—though it claims it is no longer associated with the group.

The 2018 ISNA conference featured an array of homophobic speakers. One was Omar Suleiman, an imam who has called homosexuality a "disease" that will "destroy your children." Another, former ISNA president Muzammil Siddiqi, said he "supported laws in countries where homosexuality is punishable by death." Imam Shamsi Ali, an attendee who was described as a "moderate" on ISNA's website, has stated that homosexuality is an "unbearable plague."

Meanwhile, ISNA has disinvited pro-LGBT groups Muslims for Progressive Values and the Human Rights Campaign, because they "don’t fit in."

The 2018 conference also featured individuals who have come to the defense of terrorist organizations. One speaker, Council on American-Islamic Relations executive Zahra Billoo, has regularly defended Hamas and refers to Israel as an "apartheid state."

Khalid Griggs, who spoke on a panel with Billoo, has referred to al Qaeda as the "presumed perpetrators" of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and said the U.S. government used the tragedy to wage war on "legitimate resistance fighters" in the Middle East. Griggs previously launched a petition calling on the Obama administration to pardon former Black Panther Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, better known as H. Rap Brown. Brown is serving a life sentence as a convicted cop killer.

Also included in that year's speaker lineup was Suhaib Webb, a Boston-based imam who held a fundraiser for Brown's criminal defense fund. Webb hosted the event with Anwar al-Awlaki, an imam who preached to two of the 9/11 hijackers, joined al Qaeda, and was eventually killed in a drone strike.

Anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour, who in 2004 called for a violent "intifada" in the United States, also spoke on a panel at the conference. During the panel Sarsour warned against "humanizing" Israelis, according to audio published by the Algemeiner. Hatem Bazian, head of American Muslims for Palestine, the agent of which has defended terrorists in court, was on the panel with Sarsour.

Emgage sponsored an "Organizing Engagement in the Age of Hate" panel at the event that year and became a cohost of the conference the following year. The gathering has attracted politicians, including Sanders, former presidential candidate Julian Castro, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.), as speakers.

Emgage Action, the group's nonprofit arm, received a $1 million donation for organizational support from the Open Society Policy Center, Soros's lobbying shop, in late 2019.

The group's PAC received just $3,775 in contributions this cycle. Its activities are primarily focused in Florida, Michigan, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Texas, and the District of Columbia.

Biden's campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

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More on Emgage:

Emgage was founded in 2006 by Khurrum Wahid, a defense attorney for many of the world’s most notorious terrorists and former lawyer for the Hamas-related Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). According to the Miami New Times, Wahid, himself, was placed on a federal terrorist watch list, in 2011. Both CAIR and Islamic Relief, a group that has been banned in a number of countries, are listed as ‘Partners’ on Emgage’s most recent annual report. Emgage is a member organization of the South Florida Muslim Federation (SoFlo Muslims), a terrorist umbrella group for South Florida’s various radical Muslim outfits, and Emgage holds events at terror-related mosques.

⌜ •°  ✦  °• — HEY!! is that AVAN JOGIA? no, that’s KIRAN MEHTA, hanging out in BROOKLYN. they’re TWENTY-EIGHT years old and use HE/HIM pronouns. what do they do here? they’re A MUSICIAN and they’ve lived here FOUR YEARS. their favourite thing about the city is THE FEELING OF INVINCIBILITY, but they hate THE COLD. they pride themselves on being CAREFREE.

Kiran was born and raised in a small, suburban town in North Carolina. His father was an immigrant from India, but his mother had grown up in that same town. His parents met in college, at Duke University, and settled down in his mother’s hometown because at the time of their marriage, her mother had been sick and they needed to be nearby. 

His father is a lawyer and his mother a pediatrician. There wasn’t much room for creativity in their household, as Kiran was very much expected to follow the path of the straight and narrow. Kiran was always arguing for the sake of arguing, and his father would simple ruffle his hair and say he was born to be a lawyer. At 7, he’d never seen his father so proud as when he proclaimed, “I want to study at Duke and become a lawyer like Dad!” 

Of course, goals change. Kids who once dreamed of becoming a doctor, a lawyer, an astronaut, start to find their real passions — or, in Kiran’s instance, discover their short comings. School was not something he enjoyed and he tended to get distracted by doodling in his notebook or drumming his fingers against the edge of his desk. He learned guitar in secret  — it’s not that his parents were against music, they liked it just fine, but rock ‘n roll was not allowed in the house, and spending his free-time playing the instrument as opposed to studying was certainly not acceptable 

He discovered weed at 16, which was the first time he felt as though he escaped from the pressure. It was on a particularly enlightening trip that he decided: Fuck. This. I wanna be a Rockstar. 

So when his senior year rolled around, he didn’t actually apply to any colleges (though of course he’d told his parents he had). And when acceptance letters started, he teamed up with his best friend to forge a UCLA letter, where he told his parents he’d be attending for pre-law.

So August after he graduated, he took his car (an Audi that his parents had given him for his 16th birthday due to perfect grades, a report of which he had forged as well), and drove out to Los Angeles with his best friend, who was actually going to UCLA for computer science. His thought process was: I’ll get there, I’ll go to Capitol Records, I’ll play for them, and boom. Record deal. Obviously, that wasn’t so much the case. 

In December of that year, his parents discovered he wasn’t actually attending UCLA. Angry and disappointed, they cut him off, which left Kiran with an apartment he couldn’t afford (and was forced to vacate) and a suitcase full of his belongings. And his precious car, which he’d end up living out of on top of couch surfing for the next six months. 

And then, good news finally struck. A UCLA student, a friend of a friend of a friend, who was studying to be in the entertainment industry, had decided to take on Kiran as his project. He wanted to manage him — and, with the little luck he’d had in succeeding so far, Kiran agreed. Next thing he knew, he was being signed to a small, independent record label and was booking shows at small venues around Los Angeles, and then San Diego, and then Portland and Seattle, and he just kept on spreading. 

It had been two year after he graduated high school that he returned to the east coast, but he hadn’t gone back to North Carolina. This time, he was in New York City, and he absolutely fell in love. He played a small show in Brooklyn with not even a hundred people, but it was still perfect. He met a girl, who’d complimented his set, and who he briefly fell in love with for just the night, just for the hours that he took her back to his hotel room. In the morning that feeling had vanished, and he’d sent her on her way, promising to call. He’d since forgotten that promise. 

After a few shows in NYC, Boston, Philly, etc, he returned to LA. But there was always something missing out there, and he never felt quite right about it. At twenty-four, he decided he wanted to live in New York full time. By then, he’d gained a sort of cult following. He wasn’t famous, by any means, but he was playing to rooms of about 300 people, and his shows tended to sell out amongst the underground crowd. He moved to Brooklyn, renting out an apartment in Williamsburg, where he has remained ever since. 

Personality wise, Kiran can be a bit of a snob at times. His stage name is KIRAN. He’s super passionate about music but can come across as a bit pretentious about it. He’s a big lover, but he falls in love with everyone and everything. He can write a love song about someone one night, and write another love song about someone else the next. Has a very carefree, go with the flow attitude. Literally always playing guitar or humming a tune. 

Wanted Connections

Band Mates: Every frontman needs his band!  If there’s any musicians, a guitarist, bassist, drummer, and mayhaps keyboardist would be cool. I’m still deciding on the voiceclaim, but I’m thinking something like The Growlers 

That One Girl: This is mentioned in the bio in slightly more detail, but when he was twenty and came to New York on a mini tour, he met a girl after his show and they went back to his hotel. Of course he’d promised he’d keep in touch, of course he didn’t. NYC is a huge place, he never thought he’d see her again. Well...I thought it’d be a fun connection if he did see her again. All these years later ( nearly 8 years ! ), they randomly bump into each other in some thrift shop in Brooklyn, or some diner in Manhattan, or a brewery in Queens. Anything works ! 

Manager/Best Friend: This is kind of a specific request so I may have to put in a wanted connection for this, but Kiran’s manager was a UCLA student that decided to make Kiran his project. Kiran was the first artist he ever managed, and it’s been a whole decade, so the two are thick as thieves, even if they don’t always see eye to eye on everything. 

All I Need: This is a connection inspired by a song, lol. Kiran is bisexual, So this is open to any gender ! In the song All I Need by The Frights, the lead singer sings about their baby!! The Love of their life!! In a song later released, Whatever, he sings: “and i’m still messed up from when you said you didn’t love me thirty minutes before we played ten songs about your name. and this crowd is screaming back, as i had a heart attack, as i tried to play the lead as i yelled you’re all i need” Basically gimme an ex who broke his heart, an ex who he wrote a lot of love songs about and now they’re hard to play live ! He’s been living in NYC for the past 4 years, so any time within then works. 

Honestly everything ! Neighbors, enemies, frenemies, give me a ton of friendship plots because i seriously can’t get enough of friendships

How I became a permanent resident in Canada

What if the person you loved lived four hours away? Simple – you meet halfway or one person moves closer to the other. Four hours isn’t that far to move, right?

What if that four-hour drive included crossing two different rivers via a mile-plus long tunnel or bridge and crossing an international border? That makes the situation a bit more complicated and what I endured between 2011 and 2016.

The map between my hometown and Toronto.

The meeting

You’re probably wondering how I got myself into a long-distance relationship with someone in a different country. Blame my friend Jen. She and my now husband Lance used to work for the same logistics company. Jen worked in a Michigan office and Lance was in the Toronto office (neither are employed at the company anymore).

I had just moved back to Detroit from graduate school in Boston when I first learned about Lance’s existence. Jen looped me in on emails with Lance to entertain me during unemployment. At the end of October, Jen invited Lance to visit her office and stay for the weekend to attend a Michigan State football game. She told me about “the Canadians” visiting and said I should meet up with them in East Lansing for the game.

Two other friends and I drove to Michigan State to tailgate and hang out with our new friends from north of the border (or south since we are from Detroit?). Lance and I hit it off and exchanged numbers. We texted and emailed for about a month before I made the first of many trips to Toronto and Lance came to visit me (and my family) in Metro Detroit. On December 9, 2011, we made it official and decided we were dating.

A friend who was at the game framed the ticket from the day we met.

Love is a long (flat) road

For five years, Lance and I drove the four hours after work each Friday night and four hours back Sunday night. The Canadian highways 401 and402 became as familiar to us as our reflections. We got to know each other, our friends and our families. We traveled together and sacrificed time and events with our own friends and family to be together for the short weekend.

“Distance is not for the fearful, it’s for the bold. It’s for those who are willing to spend a lot of time alone in exchange for a little time with the one they love. It’s for those who know a good thing when they see it, even if they don’t see it nearly enough.” - Meghan Daum

One weekend a little over three years into our relationship at lunch on a patio after participating in a fundraiser volleyball tournament I said we either needed to get married or break up…Lance and I legally married on July 23, 2015 and had our “real” wedding a year later on August 13, 2016.

A picture from our “real” wedding in 2016. 

Landing in Canada

After working with an immigration lawyer for about a year, we finally filed all of the paperwork in June 2016. (Side note: if you are trying to immigrate to Canada, I recommend a lawyer. A form changed while we were in the process of applying and we would have never known if we did it on our own. She was also able to pull our passport records, which I think helped speed the approval process). By September, I was approved to move to Canada.

My Facebook post after I was approved to move to Canada.

I officially landed in Canada December 18, 2016.

First stop after landing in Canada – Tim Horton’s.

The happy ending

Since 2016, Lance and I have lived in a studio and two-bedroom apartment, started new jobs and changed jobs. We adopted a dog in December 2018 and in February 2020, Lance and I officially bought our first house in Toronto. All of these moments have made me forget about the many hours and miles driving back and forth at the beginning of the relationship and makes me excited for our future.

Our rescue dog, Lexie. 

Expert Immigration Attorney in Lawrence, MA, and East Boston

With years of experience, our expert immigration attorneys in Lawrence, MA, and East Boston provide comprehensive legal services. Get professional legal advice from our Immigration Attorney serving Lawrence, MA, and East Boston. Our experienced lawyers are well-versed in various aspects of immigration law, providing personalized guidance and support throughout the legal process. Visit our website to learn more about our immigration law services and how we can assist you in your legal journey - 

Harvard student gets into US after entry denied over friends' social media posts

Ismail Ajjawi, the incoming Harvard student who was denied entry into the US, has made it to class after all.

On Aug. 23, Ajjawi was turned away at Boston’s Logan Airport after being questioned for hours and ultimately had his visa canceled after immigration officials searched his phone and laptop, according to The Harvard Crimson. He returned home to Lebanon that weekend.

That was apparently the result of the US government’s probing of visa applicants’ social media profiles. After the search, an officer questioned the 17-year-old, who got a scholarship to study in the US, about his friends’ social media activity and told him she’d found some “posting political points of view that oppose the US,” the student paper noted. Despite Ajjawi’s protests, the officer denied the student’s entry and let him call his parents.

Customs and Border Protection spokesperson Michael McCarthy said in an Aug. 28 emailed statement that he couldn’t offer specific details on Ajjawi’s case due to confidentiality restrictions. “This individual was deemed inadmissible to the United States based on information discovered during the CBP inspection,” he wrote.

The situation was ultimately resolved, and Ajjawi made it to Harvard on Monday, in time for the semester’s first classes the following day, the Crimson reported.

“US Customs and Border Protection can confirm that on Monday Sept. 2, Ismail Ajjawi overcame all grounds of inadmissibility and was admitted into the United States as a student on a F1 visa,” a CBP spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

Speaking via their lawyer, Ajjawi’s family expressed their appreciation for the support they got over a 10-day period of uncertainty and highlighted in particular the efforts on Amideast, a nonprofit that fosters relations between the US and the Middle East and North Africa.

“We truly appreciate the efforts of so many individuals and officials in Lebanon, Washington, Massachusetts and at Harvard that have made it possible for our son Ismail Ajjawi to begin his studies at Harvard with his class,” the family said in a statement.

First published Aug. 28. Updated Sept. 6: Added that Ajjawi made it into the US in time for class and added a statement from his family.

https://growinsta.xyz/harvard-student-gets-into-us-after-entry-denied-over-friends-social-media-posts/

What can an immigration lawyer do for you?

Our immigration lawyers in Boston, Massachusetts are experienced in handling all types of immigration cases. We take great time and care to understand our client’s goals and situations, in order to craft the best immigration strategy to help them obtain the results they are looking for and to achieve their immigration goals. There can be different ways of approaching one situation and the best alternative may not be the same for everyone, as each alternative can have different risks, timing and potential outcomes. Our immigration attorneys will go above and beyond to make the process as stress-free as possible, by explaining what you can expect and need to do, walking you through the entire process and providing the best possible immigration legal services in the area. 

Immigration Legal Services

Our team of legal experts can help clients with a variety of immigration-related issues and cases: 

1. U.S. Permanent Residency / U.S. Green Card: A U.S. Green Card holder / legal permanent resident is an individual who has been granted permission to live and work in the United States permanently. While there are numerous ways in which a person may acquire a Green Card, two of the most common ways by being sponsored by an immediate family member or an employer. Other ways individuals can apply for permanent resident status include after being present in the US for at least 1 year with asylum status; after being present in the U.S. for 3 years with a U visa (for victims of crime); and being granted cancellation of removal, among others. 

2. Non-immigrant U.S. Visas: There are many ways to obtain a non-immigrant U.S. visa that may grant someone the right to live and work in the United States. Our legal team can offer help with E-1 & E-2 visas for investors and traders, L-1 visas for intra-company employee transfers, H-1B visas for professional employees, K-1 visas for alien finances, U visas for victims of crime, O visas for foreigners with outstanding ability, TN visas for certain professionals from Mexico and Canada, R visas for religious workers, and others. 

3. U.S. Citizenship Applications / Naturalization: A person is usually eligible to apply to become a U.S. citizen, after being a legal permanent resident for at least 5 years (or 3 years if you are married to a U.S. citizen). Read more about the eligibility requirements for US citizenship and the documents needed.

4. Cancellation of removal / deportation (also known as the 10 year law) is a process by which certain non-permanent residents who are in removal / deportation proceedings before an immigration judge, may be granted legal permanent residency, if they have been in the U.S. continuously for the last ten years, are of good moral character, and can demonstrate that their removal will cause exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident. 

5. Renewal of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals): Individuals who came into the United States as young children (under the age of 16), and meet the eligibility criteria, may be granted Deferred Action or relief from removal / deportation from the US. And under certain circumstances be granted work authorization. Currently the government is not accepting new applications for DACA, but it is allowing renewals. 

6. Temporary Protected Status (TPS). A procedure by which Congress allows the Attorney General of the United States to provide TPS to foreigners in the United States who are temporarily unable to return to their countries because of armed conflicts, natural disasters, or other extraordinary conditions. 

7. Asylum / Political Asylum: Asylum status may be granted to a person who has a reasonable fear of persecution because of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion, if forced to return to their country of last residence.

8. Writ of Mandamus / Law suits against the USCIS: A complaint, or Writ of Mandamus, may be filed in the U.S. District Court if the USCIS has failed to issue a decision after a “reasonable” period of time, on a properly filed immigration application.

9. I-601 Waivers: For certain immigrants who have committed an immigration violation such as overstaying their permission to remain in the US under their visa and providing false or misleading information; if they can show evidence that their US citizen or legal permanent resident spouse or parent will suffer an extreme hardship, if they are not allowed to remain in the U.S.

These are just some of the many immigration legal services we can provide clients. We have the experience, skills and resources to help individuals in a variety of different immigration situations. We also can represent immigrants facing criminal charges and deportation, as we are also experienced criminal defense lawyers.

Schedule a Legal Consultation with an Immigration Attorney Today

At FitzGerald Law Company, our legal team has years of experience representing those seeking to legalize their immigration status or facing complicated immigration situations in Massachusetts. We have a deep and thorough understanding of immigration law and can devise the best immigration strategy for our clients. We serve clients in Boston, Cambridge, Quincy, Malden, Somerville, Everett, Revere, Chelsea, East Boston, Waltham, Framingham, Jamaica Plain, Lowell, Lawrence, and surrounding communities. To schedule a legal consultation today to discuss immigrating to the United States, obtaining U.S. citizenship or legalizing your immigration status with one of our experienced immigration attorneys, call us at 617-303-2600. 

Monday, December 28, 2020

Trump signs massive measure funding government, COVID relief (AP) President Donald Trump signed a $900 billion pandemic relief package Sunday, ending days of drama over his refusal to accept the bipartisan deal that will deliver long-sought cash to businesses and individuals and avert a federal government shutdown. The massive bill includes $1.4 trillion to fund government agencies through September and contains other end-of-session priorities such as an increase in food stamp benefits. The signing, at his private club in Florida, came amid escalating criticism over his eleventh-hour demands for larger, $2,000 relief checks and scaled-back spending even though the bill had already passed the House and Senate by wide margins. The bill was passed with what lawmakers had thought was Trump’s blessing, and after months of negotiations with his administration.

New Year’s Eve storm to move across US with heavy snow, winds, severe thunderstorms (ABC News) Cold Arctic air in the East Coast brought almost 2 feet of snow to western New York—from Hamburg to Buffalo—Saturday. Chilly weather has extended all the way to Florida, where freeze warnings have been issued. A new storm will cross the country, just like last week, from California to New York, with heavy rain, snow, ice and strong winds. By Tuesday and Wednesday, the storm will move into the central U.S. with heavy snow for Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Heavy rain is expected to fall along the Mississippi River Valley, and strong to severe thunderstorms are possible in Texas. By New Year’s Eve, rain and wind will hit all major cities in the Northeast, from Boston to Washington, D.C.

To stay or to go? (Washington Post) Kevin Euceda believed he was in imminent danger. Down the hall in the immigration detention center where he was being held, a man whose psychiatric visits had been suspended because of the pandemic was hallucinating and screaming. Others were shivering and sweating, scared they were going to die. Surrounded by so much sickness, Kevin was growing desperate to find a way out. A migrant who said he came to the United States when he was 17 years old to escape gang threats in Honduras, Kevin had been living for nearly three years in a place that was now being overrun by covid-19. [And so he asked to contact deportation officers.] In detention centers around the country, more and more people have been asking for the same thing, seeking their own deportation as the novel coronavirus has spread through facilities and sickened more than 8,000 detainees, according to government data. The virus has collided with the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” approach toward people looking for refuge and asylum in the United States. Those policies have led to a record number of immigrants being held in detention, including 7,000 people who had cleared the first steps of requesting asylum when the pandemic began and would normally have been released on bond while their cases were processed. Some immigrants have been withdrawing cases against their lawyers’ advice, saying they’re more afraid of being in detention during a coronavirus outbreak than of what might be waiting in the places they fled.

Millions face new UK virus restrictions (AP) Millions of people in the U.K. faced tough new coronavirus restrictions Saturday, with Scotland and Northern Ireland demanding tighter measures to try to halt a new variant of the virus that is believed to spread more quickly. Northern Ireland went into a six-week lockdown and in Wales, restrictions that were relaxed for Christmas Day were also re-imposed. The number of people under England’s top level of restrictions—Tier 4—increased by 6 million on Saturday to 24 million people overall, around 43% of England’s population. No indoor mixing of households is allowed, and only essential travel permitted. Gyms, pools, hairdressers and stores selling nonessential goods have been ordered to close and pubs and restaurants can only do takeout. Business groups say the restrictions will be economically devastating to their members.

Pope proclaims year of families, offers advice to keep peace (AP) Pope Francis on Sunday proclaimed an upcoming year dedicated to the family as he doubled down on one of his papal priorities and urged renewed attention to his controversial 2016 document on family life. Francis announced the upcoming year on the family would begin March 19, the fifth anniversary of his document “The Joy of Love.” Among other things, the document opened the door to letting divorced and civilly remarried couples receive Communion, sparking criticism and even claims of heresy from conservative Catholics. In making the announcement, Francis offered some friendly papal advice to bickering families, reminding them to say “pardon me, thank you and sorry” and never end the day without making peace. “Because the Cold War the day after is dangerous,” he quipped.

Hundreds of migrants freezing in heavy snow in Bosnia camp (AP) Hundreds of migrants were stranded Saturday in a squalid, burnt-out tent camp in Bosnia as heavy snow fell in the country and winter temperatures suddenly dropped. A fire earlier this week destroyed much of the camp near the town of Bihac that already was harshly criticized by international officials and aid groups as being inadequate for housing refugees and migrants. Despite the fire, Bosnian authorities have failed to find new accommodations for the migrants at Lipa, leaving around 1,000 people stuck in the cold, with no facilities or heat, eating only meager food parcels provided by aid groups. Bosnia has become a bottleneck for thousands of migrants hoping to reach Western Europe. Most are stuck in Bosnia’s northwest Krajina region as other areas in the ethnically divided nation have refused to accept them. The EU has warned Bosnia that thousands of migrants face a freezing winter without shelter, and it has urged the country’s bickering politicians to set aside their differences and take action.

China’s Economy Set to Overtake U.S. Earlier Due to Covid Fallout (Bloomberg) The Chinese economy is set to overtake the U.S. faster than previously anticipated after weathering the coronavirus pandemic better than the West, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research. The world’s biggest and second-biggest economies are on course to trade places in dollar terms in 2028, five years earlier than expected a year ago, it said on Saturday. In its World Economic League Table, the consultancy also calculated that China could become a high-income economy as soon as 2023. Further cementing Asia’s growing might, India is set to move up the rankings to become the No. 3 economy at the end of the decade.

Near 1 million virus cases, South Africa weighs restrictions (AP) As South Africa’s COVID-19 spike has taken the country to nearly 1 million confirmed cases, President Cyril Ramaphosa called an emergency meeting on Sunday of the National Coronavirus Command Council. With South Africa’s hospitals reaching capacity and no sign of the new surge reaching a peak, Ramaphosa is expected to announce a return to restrictive measures designed to slow the spread of the disease. With a cumulative total of 994,911 confirmed cases of COVID-19, South Africa is expected to exceed 1 million cases when new figures are released late Sunday. That number includes 26,521 deaths.

Boston’s Great Molasses Flood Is Getting the Off-Broadway Musical Treatment

Plus, stop stealing stuff from restaurants, look forward to more wine in Fenway, and more news

Welcome back to AM Intel, a round-up of mini news bites to kick off the day.

A Molasses Musical

Boston’s Great Molasses Flood of 1919, which killed 21 people and injured over 100 more when a molasses storage tank burst in the North End, is the backdrop for a musical called Molasses in January, set to debut off-Broadway this spring at New York’s Jerry Orbach Theatre, written and composed by Francine Pellegrino and directed by Whitney Stone. The musical is about “a single mother doing her best to raise her children [in the North End] in a world caught up in the turmoil of the first World War,” per Broadway.com, when news of the construction of a molasses tank brings hopes for prosperity to the neighborhood full of Italian immigrants.

“Though surrounded with worries of anarchy, the people of the North End prove that family (and good food) holds tight through thick and thin and remember that ‘life can change in a moment,’” writes BroadwayWorld.com.

Here’s a promo video from a 2016 workshop:

Stuff People Steal

It’s no secret that jerks steal stuff from restaurants — pretty much anything that’s not bolted down, and even some things that are: artwork, signage, more signage, dog lamps, giraffe statues, empty Tabasco bottles, soap dispensers, cool glassware, 20 shot glasses, ice trays, metal straws…the list goes on. Don’t do this. The Globe took a look at this problem, looping it into a discussion of restaurants getting increasingly creative with quirky design elements in the age of Instagram. Like something and want it for your own home? This should be obvious, but don’t steal it from the restaurant: Ask where it’s from, or even try taking a photo and loading it into a Google Images search, and then buy it for yourself like a normal, law-abiding citizen.

Crimewire

Speaking of law-breaking, there’s been a flurry of restaurant and nightlife crime stories popping up in the news over the past few days. Flames, a Caribbean restaurant in Mattapan, has been closed for a complete rebuild since a December fire. Turns out it was allegedly set by an employee of the restaurant; police made an arrest this week but didn’t reveal a potential motive.

Over in East Boston, fans of Donna’s Restaurant, a popular diner, were shocked to hear that the owner has been charged with sales tax evasion to the tune of $60,000 and will be arraigned in April.

In the Seaport District back in January, Empire was the site of an alleged glassware attack by a customer that left a bouncer with 100 stitches and potentially permanent loss of vision in one eye. The restaurant is going before the licensing board this week to see if it’ll be punished for not being able to foresee or prevent the incident.

And this is a weird one — head to Universal Hub for the full story on a local lawyer who admitted that he’s been a regular at one of Boston’s two remaining strip clubs, Centerfolds, for almost a decade, breaking strip club regulations about touching and allegedly witnessing drug use, all of which he’s now telling the board in order to get the club in trouble for drug and prostitution violations. But, a twist! He used to date one of the strippers and is apparently still in contact with her father, trying to force her into drug treatment — and he admitted to running background checks on friends and family of the woman and trying to obtain court records on her, as well as contacting her aunts, saying that it was because he was concerned about her well-being since, as he said, she had lied to him about her addiction. As UHub sums it up: “The Boston Licensing Board…has to decide whether his allegations of prostitution and heroin use at one of Boston’s two remaining strip clubs are valid or whether they’re the statements of a bitter, lovelorn man now barred from strip joints across the country.”

Fenway Wine

On a happier note, lots more wine is coming to Fenway. As previously reported, the team behind acclaimed downtown wine bar Haley.Henry is opening a wine bar called Nathálie this summer on the ground floor of the new Pierce Building. Here’s a little bit more info from a new interview with owner Haley Fortier and managing partner Kristie Weiss from the Pierce website. And that’s not all: The Wine Press, a Brookline liquor store that has been around for decades, is expanding to the Pierce building as well, slated for a summer opening, owners Aaron and Jyoti Mehta announced yesterday. They’ve owned the shop since 2011 and will continue to focus on wines as well as a selection of beer and spirits at their forthcoming second location. The Wine Press hosts frequent events and tastings and also has services including beverage catering, gift basket preparation, and a monthly wine club.

Got a news tip for the Eater Boston team? Email [email protected].

Choosing The American Immigration Lawyer

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Why Choosing the Right Family Immigration Lawyer Matters

Introduction:

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Expertise in Family Immigration Law:

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Personalized Legal Guidance:

Every family’s immigration journey is unique, and cookie-cutter solutions won’t suffice. When you choose Gonzalez Legal, you can expect personalized legal guidance tailored to your specific needs and circumstances. Our compassionate attorneys take the time to listen to your concerns, understand your goals, and develop a customized legal strategy that aligns with your objectives.

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Conclusion:

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Originally published at- https://gonzalezlegaloffice.com/why-choosing-the-right-family-immigration-lawyer-matters/

Read the transcript: https://bit.ly/2GretQT

Dr. Walid Phares, who served as a foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump and Mitt Romney and is Fox News national security expert, will assess US policy towards the Greater Middle East from Afghanistan to Libya, with insights into major crises in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Gulf and Turkey.

Dr. Phares is an engaging and highly sought after Middle East expert and pacesetter, often predicting trends and situations on the ground years before they occur. He is a Fox News Expert, advisor to the US Congress and the European Parliament and served as a senior advisor on national security foreign policy to presidential candidate Mitt Romney 2012.

Dr Phares is the only expert/author who predicted the Arab Spring a year before it occurred in his pacesetting book, The Coming Revolution: Struggle for Freedom in the Middle East (Threshold, a division of Simon and Shuster 2010). Dr Phares holds an extensive CV and noteworthy achievements in the fields of academia, government strategies, media and publishing critical advice on combatting terrorism and countering jihadi radicalization both stateside and abroad.

Dr Phares holds a Ph.D in international relations and strategic studies from the University of Miami, and a Political Science Degree from St Joseph University and a Law degree from the Lebanese University in Beirut and a Master in International Law from Universite’ Jean Moulin in Lyons, France.

Dr Phares taught political science and Middle East studies at Florida Atlantic University between 1993 and 2004. Since 2006, he has taught Global Jihadi strategies at the National Defense University in Washington DC. Dr Phares lectures on campuses nationwide and internationally, including at the US Intelligence University. He lectured at Georgetown University, George Washington University, American University, Columbia, University of Chicago, Pepperdine, Boston College, Brandeis, UC Berkley, University of Colorado at Boulder, Loyola New Orleans, UC Santa Barbara, and many others including Ecole Militaire of France in Paris. Dr Phares lectures also to various academic associations including the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa in Washington DC and Middle East American ethnic organizations.

After having authored six books on Middle East politics and history (in Arabic) in the 1980s, Dr Phares authored another five in English stateside since the mid 1990s. His most important volumes were published after 9/11 starting with Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies against America, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005) and a critically acclaimed book that was ranked in the top ten books of the 2006 Foreign Affairs List. Future Jihad was read and cited by many members of Congress and the European Parliament. Dr Phares predicted the rise of jihadi urban networks and set forth strategies to counter them in the West and overseas.

Dr Phares published two more books on global strategies: The War of Ideas (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008) explaining the ideological indoctrination and The Confrontation, a policy strategy book designed to isolate radicals. Media and colleagues alike rave about Phares’s hallmark book, which predicted the Arab Spring a year before it occurred: The Coming Revolution: Struggle for Freedom in the Middle East (Simon and Shuster, 2010). The book was endorsed by US Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and praised by many leading figures in Congress, political circles and media on both sides of the Atlantic.

Dr Walid Phares is a native of Beirut, Lebanon, and immigrated to the United States in 1990. He speaks fluent Arabic and French as well as English. Prior to moving stateside, Dr Phares was a student union leader, a lawyer, a publisher, a university professor, and founded a social-democratic party, which he represented in several political coalitions.

Phares previously spoke at Westminster on the subjects of A New U.S. Response to Upheaval in the Middle East and Geopolitics of the Jihadi Threat: Assessment of ISIS and Iran’s Strategies.