Replies to post #292637 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

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Trump’s Falsehood-Laden Speech on Immigration

"Why Is Donald Trump Still So Horribly Witless About the World?"

Fact Check of the Day

At the White House, and in the lead-up to the midterm elections, President Trump issued a warning
to the migrant caravan headed toward the United States. His speech was filled with inaccurate claims.


President Trump on Thursday at the White House.CreditCreditSarah Silbiger/The New York Times

By Linda Qiu Nov. 1, 2018

what trump said

“We’re not letting them into our country. And then they never show up, almost, it’s like a level of 3 percent.
They never show up for the trial. So by the time their trial comes, they’re gone, nobody knows where they are.”

False.

President Trump was referring to the rate that migrants show up to immigration court proceedings after being apprehended and released into the United States. Data from the Justice Department .. https://www.justice.gov/eoir/page/file/1107056/download#page=34 .. shows that most immigrants do, in fact, show up to their court hearings.

In the 2017 fiscal year, about 28 percent of immigrants failed to attend their court hearings — not the 97 percent Mr. Trump estimated.

Among asylum seekers, only 11 percent did not show up for legal proceedings. Of the asylum seekers who participated in a pilot program tested as an alternative to detention, 99 percent attended Immigration and Custom Enforcement check-ins and appointments .. https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2017-12/OIG-18-22-Nov17.pdf . And 100 percent turned up for court hearings.

The Trump administration ended the pilot program last June.

what trump said

“We can’t get any Democrat votes to change them. It’s only the Republicans
that are in unison they want to change them. They want to make strong borders.”

This is misleading

Citing immigration laws that he said “are so bad,” Mr. Trump accused Democrats of causing overhaul legislation to fizzle in Congress. Left unsaid was that disarray among the Republican Party partly contributed to the bills’ demise.

In February, after Mr. Trump moved to rescind protections for the young immigrants known as Dreamers, the Senate rejected three immigration proposals. Fourteen Republican senators voted against .. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/02/15/us/politics/immigration-issues-congress-daca.html?module=inline .. the one that was backed by the White House; it received the least support from the president’s own party than any of the three.

After a public outcry over the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policy that resulted in migrant children being separated from their families after crossing the border, the House rejected a hard-line immigration bill in June that was backed by the White House. Forty-one Republicans voted against it .. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/21/us/politics/house-immigration-bills-dreamers-daca-family-separation.html?module=inline .

what trump said

“Nearly 100 percent of heroin in the United States enters through the southern border. Think of that, 100
percent almost of heroin comes in through the southern border, along with roughly 90 percent of cocaine
and the majority of meth and a substantial portion of the ultralethal fentanyl killing our youth.”

This requires context.

Mr. Trump is right that most heroin smuggled into the United States enters through the southwest border, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s latest National Drug Assessment report .. https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2018-07/DIR-040-17_2017-NDTA.pdf .

Most fentanyl enters the United States from packages mailed directly from China, or through Canada from China, according to the report. Though “large volumes” of fentanyl are also smuggled through the southwest border, it tends to be less potent — and costs less — than the packages directly from China.

“We are miserably losing this fight to prevent fentanyl from entering our country and killing our citizens,” the president’s opioids commission reported last November .. https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/images/Final_Report_Draft_11-1-2017.pdf . “We are losing this fight predominately through China.”

The drug agency also noted that the “most common method” of drug smuggling used by criminal organizations is by driving through official American ports of entry — not a migrant caravan of people on foot.

In some of those vehicles, the drugs are kept in concealed compartments; in others, they are mixed among legal goods on tractor-trailers. Smugglers also use tunnels, passenger trains and buses, drug mules and even drones and other aircraft.

what trump said

“The Democrat Party’s vision is to offer them free health care, free
welfare, free education and even the right to vote.”

This is misleading.

Legal immigrants to the United States can receive some public benefits and have a pathway to citizenship and the right to vote. But that is a matter of law — not merely the political platform or policies of the Democratic Party.

Migrants who are granted asylum are eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Medicaid and the Supplemental Security Income program. They are also eligible for the cash assistance program known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, according to the Congressional Research Service .. https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33809.pdf .

Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for most public programs and cannot vote. While a 2013 Senate bill to overhaul the immigration system .. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/28/us/politics/immigration-bill-clears-final-hurdle-to-senate-approval.html?module=inline .. would have allowed undocumented immigrants who had arrived in the United States before December 2011 to apply for citizenship, the House never voted on the legislation. Mr. Trump’s own “four pillars” for immigration reform also included a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers .. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trumps-state-union-address/ .

what trump said

“Nobody talks about that, but under President Obama, they separated
children from the parents.”

This is misleading.

As The New York Times has reported .. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/19/us/fact-check-trump-child-separation.html?module=inline , previous presidential administrations did break up families — but did so rarely, according to former officials and immigration experts. The Trump administration, by contrast, has knowingly enacted the practice that some officials have characterized as a deterrence against illegal entry.

what trump said

“And once that control is set and standardized and made very strong, including the building of the wall,
which we’ve already started. $1.6 billion spent last year, $1.6 billion this year. We have another $1.6
that will be coming, but we want to build it at one time.”

This is misleading.

A spending bill signed by Mr. Trump in March allotted $1.6 billion for projects to replace old barriers along the border with new ones. But that bill did not allow spending funds on a new border wall.

Mr. Trump signed another spending bill in late September, which did not include any money for his border wall — a fact he seemed aware of, given his criticisms over the lack of funding ..

I want to know, where is the money for Border Security and the WALL in this ridiculous Spending Bill, and where will it come from after the Midterms? Dems are obstructing Law Enforcement and Border Security. REPUBLICANS MUST FINALLY GET TOUGH!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 20, 2018

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Linda Qiu is a fact-check reporter, based in Washington. She came to
The Times in 2017 from the fact-checking service PolitiFact. @ylindaqiu

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/us/politics/fact-check-trump-immigration-.html

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Alleged Al-qaeda Operative Extradited To United States For Role In International Terrorism Plot Targeting New York City, United Kingdom, And Scandinavia

"Why Is Donald Trump Still So Horribly Witless About the World?"

This is just one success story of one of the American institutions which Donald Trump, whenever it suits him politically, chooses to attack.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, January 3, 2013

Abid Naseer, a Manchester-based United Kingdom resident, was extradited from the United Kingdom to Brooklyn, New York, today to face charges for his alleged role in an international al-Qaeda plot to attack targets in the United States and Europe. Naseer will make his initial appearance on Monday, January 7, at 2:00 p.m., before The Hon. Raymond J. Dearie of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Naseer is the eighth defendant to face charges in Brooklyn federal court related to the al-Qaeda plot involving Adis Medunjanin, Najibullah Zazi, and Zarein Ahmedzay.

The extradition was announced by Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; Lisa O. Monaco, Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division; George Venizelos, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office; and Raymond W. Kelly, Commissioner, New York City Police Department.

According to the indictment, other court filings, evidence presented to the court in support of Naseer’s extradition, and evidence from the trials of Adis Medunjanin and Mohammed Wali Zazi in the Eastern District of New York, in approximately September 2008, al-Qaeda leaders in Pakistan recruited Medunjanin, Najibullah Zazi, and Zarein Ahmedzay, three friends from New York City, to conduct a suicide bombing attack in New York City.1 The al- Qaeda leaders, including Adnan El-Shukrijumah and Saleh al-Somali, communicated with Zazi about the plot through an al-Qaeda facilitator named “Ahmad” in Peshawar, Pakistan. In early September 2009, after Medunjanin, Zazi, and Ahmedzay had selected the New York City subway system as their target, Zazi emailed with “Ahmad” in Pakistan about the proper ingredients for the main charge explosive, which included flour and oil. Zazi pleaded guilty to his role in the plot on February 22, 2010; Ahmedzay pleaded guilty on April 23, 2010; and Medunjanin was convicted after trial on May 1, 2012.

The investigation by authorities in the United States and United Kingdom revealed that “Ahmad” was also communicating with Naseer. Naseer, like Zazi, was in Peshawar, Pakistan in November 2008, according to the court filings. After returning to the United Kingdom, Naseer sent messages back and forth to the same email account that “Ahmad” was using to communicate with the American-based al-Qaeda cell on behalf of Saleh al-Somali, the indictment and court filings allege. In the messages, Naseer used coded language to refer to different types of explosives. At the culmination of the plot, in early April 2009, Naseer, again using coded language, told “Ahmad” that he was planning a large “wedding” for numerous guests between April 15 and 20, 2009, and that “Ahmad” should be ready. Notably, evidence at Medunjanin’s trial established that “Ahmad” and Zazi had agreed on a similar code to mean the New York City attack was ready to be executed, and that Zazi emailed Ahmad that “the marriage is ready” just before he drove to New York in early September 2009.

On April 8, 2009, Naseer and several associates were arrested in the United Kingdom. In connection with these arrests, U.K. authorities conducted searches of the plotters’ homes, where they found large quantities of flour and oil, as well as surveillance photographs of public areas in Manchester and maps of Manchester’s city center posted on the wall, with one of the locations from the surveillance photographs highlighted.

On January 30, 2012, three defendants were also convicted in a Norwegian court of plotting a similar terrorist attack in Denmark as part of the same overall multinational al- Qaeda conspiracy. During that trial, the United States made available to the Norwegian prosecutors three witnesses who also pleaded guilty to terrorism offenses in the Eastern District of New York: Najibullah Zazi, Zarein Ahmedzay, and Bryant Neal Vinas.

Naseer is charged with providing and conspiring to provide material support to al-Qaeda and conspiracy to use a destructive device in relation to the U.K. branch of the plot. He faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if convicted of all counts.

“The defendant is one of a long line of terrorist suspects extradited to these shores and this courthouse to face justice for their efforts to wreak havoc here and overseas. As alleged, this defendant was instrumental in one tentacle of an international plot that reached to New York, Norway, and the United Kingdom,” said United States Attorney Lynch. “Those responsible for terrorist plots or attacks will be investigated, charged, and prosecuted, whether they are arrested here in the United States, or abroad.” Ms. Lynch also expressed her gratitude to the law enforcement personnel, both domestic and foreign, who took part in the investigation.

“Today’s extradition underscores the importance of international cooperation in disrupting transnational terrorism threats. I thank our counterparts in the United Kingdom for their assistance in this investigation as well as the many U.S. agents, analysts, and prosecutors who helped bring about these charges,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security Monaco.

FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Venizelos said, “The extradition of Naseer demonstrates not only the long arm of American justice. It also shows the determination and commitment of governments around the world to work in common cause to thwart alleged international terrorist conspiracies. Plotting in one country to do harm in another does not provide cover for terrorists. It makes them targets in two countries.”

Police Commissioner Kelly said, “Here’s to our special relationship. New York and London, and now Manchester, share a history of terrorism and outstanding law enforcement cooperation in bringing those allegedly responsible to justice, as this case illustrates. Al-Qaeda has attacked on both sides of the Atlantic, and it has been brought to justice on both shores too.”

The government’s case is being prosecuted by David Bitkower, James P. Loonam, Berit W. Berger, and Zainab Ahmad of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, with assistance from the Counterterrorism Section of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. Assistance was also provided by Lystra Blake, Associate Director of the Office of International Affairs.

The Defendant:

ABID NASEER
Age: 26

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/alleged-al-qaeda-operative-extradited-united-states-role-international-terrorism-plot