Seven of 10 new students in a Baltimore-Washington area school district are immigrants, their legal status unknown and their second language English, according to a series of new media reports about the impact of surging immigration on local communities.
A recent Baltimore Sun report said that of the 5,000 new students jamming Baltimore County schools in the past five years, 3,500 are “recent immigrants or children whose family speak another language.”
That has helped to double the percentage of students who speak English as a second language, part of a national trend.
And WBAL TV in Baltimore said that there has been a 130 percent surge of students enrolled in English for Speakers of Other Languages over the past 10 years, up 12 percent in the past year alone.
The Sun said that the addition of new and mostly immigrant students is enough to fill a new school every single year. It also said that the system does not know the legal status of the new students and that under a 1982 Supreme Court decision all students have to be accepted.
It has put great pressure on the system’s ESOL program and prompted the county, which surrounds Baltimore, to scramble to hire more teachers with second language skills.
Most are from Central America, but the Sun added that a sizable minority are from Nigeria.
It is a trend.
The Center for Immigration Studies recently found 700 immigrant-saturated school districts where half of the new students are from immigrant households.
In the Washington communities the percentages are even higher than in Baltimore County. CIS said that 78 percent of the students in Annandale and West Falls Church, Va. schools are from immigrant homes.
“The number of children from immigrant households in schools is now so high in some areas that it raises profound questions about assimilation. What’s more, immigration has added enormously to the number of public school students who are in poverty and the number who speak a foreign language. This cannot help but to create significant challenges for schools, often in areas already struggling to educate students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds,” said the CIS report.
North Carolina sheriffs failed to realize their refusal to enforce immigration laws would require ICE to pick up the slack.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement reports that since two sheriffs in North Carolina are refusing to work with the agency, it has begun sweeping raids throughout the state and arrested 200 illegal immigrants last week alone.
Calling it the “new normal,” ICE director Sean Gallagher explained that these agency-led raids are the “direct conclusion” of local law enforcement refusing to work with the agency. Two newly elected sheriffs, representing the state’s two most populous counties, have stopped reporting the citizenship status of those they apprehend in an effort to strangle the federal agency.
“This is the direct conclusion of dangerous policies of not cooperating with ICE,” said Sean Gallagher, who oversees the agency’s operation in the Carolinas and Georgia. “This forces my officers to go out onto the street to conduct more enforcement.”
Since December, newly elected sheriffs in the state’s two most populous counties — Mecklenburg and Wake — have reversed a policy that notifies ICE about the legal status of inmates in county jails. The Durham County Sheriff’s Office also ended the practice of honoring ICE detainers.
These changes, Gallagher said, have given the agency “no choice” but to conduct targeted enforcement across the state this week. “This is politics over public safety at its worst.”
Last week, ICE detained over 200 illegal immigrants in North Carolina during their sweeping raids, and discovered another 25 during an unrelated raid.
Pledging to end all cooperation with ICE, newly elected Wake County Sheriff Gerald Baker doubled down on his promise when sworn in last year.
“We serve a lot of communities,” Baker said as he stood next to Uriel Rodriguez, a middle school student he met while campaigning. “We want to make it so that the Wake County Sheriff’s Office treats everybody the same and improves the quality of life for each and every person. It’s about humanity. It’s about just caring for people. That’s a large part of what this office will be doing, moving forward.”
Apparently Baker and the other North Carolina sheriffs elected on similar platforms failed to realize that his agency’s refusal to enforce federal law due to its love of “caring for” illegal immigrants would simply result in federal enforcement of already existing laws.
Both of these men — Abuirshaid and Jaber — were named by the Israeli government in a February 3 report on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement’s links to terrorism. Both of these men, Osama Abuirshad and Rafael Jaber, are top-ranking officials of the American Muslims for Palestine (AMP).
The AMP is spun off from a group that was found guilty by a federal court of providing financial aid to Hamas. Abuirshaid and Jaber were also part of that parent group.
Samirah was the featured speaker at this past November 22-24 conference for the American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), which is named in the Israeli government’s report “Terrorists In Suits.” The AMP is alternately based in Falls Church, Virginia or Illinois, according to differing official addresses. Linda Sarsour was also a featured speaker at this conference.
Lawyer Stephen Landes confirmed to Big League Politics that both of these individuals — Abuirshaid and Jaber — are named in his lawsuit for Jewish-American assassination victim David Boim, an American citizen, who was killed in Jerusalem in 1996 by members of Hamas.
Here is Samirah photographed at the AMP table at a recent Dar Al-Hijrah fundraiser.
In 2004, a Federal court found the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) guilty of providing financial aid to Hamas. Leading figures of the Islamic Association for Palestine are now working in AMP in senior positions:
A. Sufyan Nabhan, current AMP National Board Member, was formerly IAP’s Michigan Regional Representative.
B. Osama Abuirshaid, AMP National Board Member and the NGO’s official National Policy Director. In 2015, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services disqualified him from attaining citizenship inter alia, due to lack of disclosure of his past affiliations with IAP.
C. Rafeeq Jaber was formerly IAP’s President. Jaber currently handles AMP’s finances and was a signatory on the financial reports of AJPEducational Foundation, AMP’s tax-exempt fiscal sponsor. In September 2015, he signed a petition as a representative of the AMP.”
Racist Virginia Democrat governor Ralph Northam is setting off on a “listening tour” of the state to address his own well-documented racist past — which includesblackface or a Klan hood, blackface in emulation of Michael Jackson, and a collegiate screedabout “the city streets.”
Northam’s listening tour will also featureNortham describing “what he he has learned from his own experiences,” according to an adviser.
America will be sure to listen closely to what Northam has learned since his racism finally caught up with him.
As protesters call for his resignation, and his own state party abandoned him, Northam is trying to become the world’s least convincing social justice warrior. A Daily Kos poll shows 60 percent of Virginians favor resignation and 24 percent hope he will stick it out.
“Well, several things, starting with I was born in white privilege and that has implications to it and it is much different the way a white person such as myself is treated in this country …”
“And again, talking to a lot of friends, that has come crystally clear to me this week. I’ve also learned why the use of blackface is so offensive. And yes, I knew it in the past, but reality has really set in.”
“Certainly, Ms. King, I am not the same person now at age 59 that I was back in my early 20s,” Northam stated, noting that “we’re all on a learning curve.”
Ralph Calls Slaves ‘Indentured Servants’
Northam pretty much ruined his “white privilege” apology with this sound byte:
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam: "We are now at the 400-year anniversary — just 90 miles from here in 1619. The first indentured servants from Africa landed on our shores in Old Point Comfort, what we call now Fort Monroe, and while—"@GayleKing: "Also known as slavery" pic.twitter.com/AiX96MU1rJ
Buzzfeed News reported:“Northam doesn’t plan to hold any more press conferences any time soon. Advisers are in the midst of negotiations with major networks for a nationally televised interview they hope will humanize him. Additionally, his advisers have assigned the governor homework: He’s begun to read Alex Haley’s “Roots”, and “The Case for Reparations,” the seminal essay in The Atlantic by Ta-Nehisi Coates.”
Ralph Ignores African-American Protesters at the Capitol
The African-American community is not very happy with Ralph Northam, but the governor does not appear to be in a hurry to greet the protesters agitating for his resignation.
The embattled governor managed to add a layer of needless disgrace to the memorializing of a fallen state trooper, who deserved to be recognized by an actual respected governor and not a worldwide figure of derision and scorn in the throes of a media firestorm.
“My heartfelt condolences go out to the family and friends of Trooper Lucas Dowell. We are grateful for his dedication to the safety of our communities, and for all of those who put themselves in harm’s way to protect others,”Northam tweetedfrom the official Virginia governor’s account.
Here are some of the many anti-Northam comments on the tweet, which prove conclusively that Ralph Northam will never be able to be a real governor at this point and every day that he drags this out without resigning is just another day that he embarrasses the state of Virginia:
“Resign, Northam.
Resign.
Resign.
#TimeToGo
Northam has ALWAYS been part of the problem… we just have proof now
Ralph Gets Wrecked By His Black Former Opponent E.W. Jackson
E.W. Jackson, the black Republican leader who ran against Ralph Northam for lieutenant governor in 2013, delivered a rousing condemnation of the Virginia Democrat governor on the state Capitol steps. Jackson made it clear how repugnant Northam’s views really are — years after Northam refused to shake Jackson’s hand in their 2013 debate.
E.W. Jackson tells Big League Politics that he is hesitant to play the race card, but he genuinely believes that Northam has “racial animus in him,” citing Northam’s refusal to shake Jackson’s hand during their televised debate. Northam is clinging to the governorship after BLP published his blackface-KKK yearbook photograph.
Ralph Says He Darkened His Skin To Look Like Michael Jackson
A foreign man has been arrested in Oulu, Finland, as police investigate the latest child sexual assault case to rock the city, this one involving two girls and possibly multiple perpetrators, according tolocal media.
Criminal Commissioner Eveliina Karjalainen told local outlet Kaleva that police suspect the female victims, one 18-years-old and the other under 16, were raped by more than one offender in a private residence.
“The investigation is still in the beginning,” she said. “This fact, like many other things, is under investigation.”
The suspect in custody is reportedly a “foreigner with a residence permit in Finland,” who has lived in the country for several years.
“The case is being investigated, among other things, as gross rape,”Kaleva reports. “Other offenses are assault and coercion. For the younger girl, the police are also investigating the act as a gross sexual abuse of a child because of the victim’s age.”
New Gallup polling indicates that a majority of Finns believe the cultural values and religion of migrants are to blame for an explosive sexual assault crisis gripping the Nordic nation, with Oulu at its epicenter.
“People with a foreign background are responsible for a quarter of all reported sex crimes, despite constituting only 6.9 percent of the Finnish population,”Sputnik reports, citing Finnish police.
Finnish officials recently proposed that migrants in Finland who are guilty of serious crimes should have their citizenship revoked.
Protestors outside a rally held by failed U.S. Senate Candidate “Beto” O’Rourke used bats to beat a piñata made to look like President Donald Trump.
During a “March for Truth” rally in El Paso, Texas, supporters of Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke hung a Trump piñata and took turns beating it with a bat, Phil Prazan tweeted.
The beating of the Trump effigy came shortly after the “March for the Truth” rally and President Trump’s own rally held on Monday night. Both rallies were held at about the same time just a short distance from border walls that separate El Paso from Juarez, Mexico.
President Trump mocked “Beto” O’Rourke and his rally. At one point, the president said the competing rally only attracted about 300 people.
As O’Rourke called out President Trump over border walls and barriers, he stood on a stage that was “walled off” by barriers, fences, and barricades, Breitbart News reported.
President Trump’s rally in El Paso, Texas, and Beto O’Rourke’s rally nearby had some stark differences between them.
During Trump’s rally on Monday night, chants of “USA! USA! USA!” boomed throughout the venue with American flags and MAGA hats everywhere, while Beto’s smaller rally featured a mariachi band, waving Mexican flags, and burkas.
The rallies capture the right and left’s political and cultural positions, with Trump’s rally focused on America First and protected borders, while Beto’s focused on Mexico First and open borders.
Social media users are flocking to #StandwithIlhan after Rep. Ilhan Omar was pressured to issue an apology for her tweets about the Israel lobby’s influence over US politicians, after she was accused of anti-Semitism.
Omar was seemingly forced to apologize by Democratic leadership after she tweeted about Israeli influence and named the powerful Israel lobbying group AIPACas having a hold over US politicians.
Although her statements were backed up, Omar faced an onslaught of outrage from a wide range of commenters, from Chelsea Clinton to President Donald Trump, who said she should be“ashamed of herself.” This despite the fact that Trump faced criticism for making anti-Semitic tropes about members of the Republican Jewish Coalition liking money and making deals when he addressed them in 2015.
“I don’t think her apology was adequate,” he unironically said of Omar.
Omar “unequivocally” apologized for her remarks in a statement which also reaffirmed the problematic role of lobbyists in US politics. This prompted many to accuse her of not apologizing enough, while her supporters expressed disappointment that she was apologizing at all.
Many voicing their support for Omar pointed to American values of freedom of speech and shared a petition urging the Democratic leadership to stand up against “bad faith attacks” targeting Omar even after her apology. Others said they had donated to her campaign.
Social media users also provided more information to back up Omar’s initial tweets about Israel’s influence, and pointed to disconnects between House Leader Nancy Pelosi’s statement supporting Israel and denouncing “racism, prejudice and discrimination” in light of freedoms not offered to Palestinians under Israeli occupation.
The volume of outrage and cries of anti-Semitism from the US establishment seemed to further bolster Omar’s comments about the sway the Israel lobby holds over elected officials and the country’s two leading political parties.
Ironically, smearing people as anti-Semites is a tactic employed by the Israel lobby both in the US and theUK, as detailed in two Al Jazeera documentaries which saw an undercover reporter infiltrate both the US and UK lobby to reveal methods employed by the groups. The US version was never aired by Al Jazeera as a result of pressure wrought by the Israel lobby and members of Congress, who accused the network of… anti-Semitism.
If you don't want to believe @IlhanMN about @AIPAC influencing Congress on behalf of Israel, listen to former AIPAC director, Eric Gallagher, say the exact same thing. (This clip is from the incredible @AlJazeera documentary, The Lobby USA – https://t.co/lFmSseSoky) pic.twitter.com/kLkNsy9Iqq
One clip from the censored documentary shared on Twitter shows former AIPAC Director Eric Gallagher explaining that “everything AIPAC does is focused on influencing Congress.”
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Labor unions say they are withholding support for a Green New Deal unveiled by Democrats last week to transition the American economy away from fossil fuels, arguing the loosely-defined plan could kill jobs if its architects aren’t careful.
The cool response from unions underscores the challenge facing Democratic presidential hopefuls who support aggressive action on climate change but must also win back the blue-collar voters that swept President Donald Trump to victory in 2016.
The Green New Deal is a non-binding Congressional resolution introduced by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Edward Markey that would legislate government-led investment in clean energy infrastructure with the goal of making America carbon neutral within a decade.
Democratic presidential hopeful Senators Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren have already thrown their support behind it.
The resolution’s backers say the plan – once fully sketched out in the legislation – would create jobs in much the same way as President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal of the 1930s by putting Americans to work on transformative government-led projects.
It also calls for a “just transition” for current fossil fuel workers – from coal miners to pipeline workers – through guarantees of healthcare, jobs, and job training.
Union officials told Reuters they were skeptical.
“We will never settle for ‘just transition’ language as a solution to the job losses that will surely come from some of the policies in the resolution,” said Yvette Pena O’Sullivan, executive director of the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA), whose members work in construction and other industries.
Phil Smith, a spokesman for the United Mine Workers (UMWA), which represents workers in the coal industry, echoed the concerns.
“We’ve heard words like ‘just transition’ before, but what does that really mean? Our members are worried about putting food on the table,” he said.
LIUNA and UMWA said they were not contacted for input on the resolution before it was released.
Sean McGarvey, president of the North America’s Building Trades Unions, representing construction workers across all sectors including energy, said his staff had been contacted by Markey’s office about the Green New Deal, but said his members are skeptical of “green job” promises.
Members “working in the oil and gas sector can make a middle-class living, whereas renewable energy firms have been less generous,” he said at a pipeline safety event last week.
APPALACHIAN BACKLASH
Democrats backing the resolution are seeking to highlight the contrast in their position with the Trump administration’s vocal support for drilling and mining and its skepticism about the causes and impacts of global warming.
Trump’s approach was warmly received in 2016 in parts of Appalachia and the Rust Belt, which have been suffering from manufacturing and mining jobs losses.
Trump’s Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton struggled to sell her clean energy agenda in those regions, and suffered politically after saying her policies would “put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.”
The Sunrise Movement, a youth organization backing the Green New Deal, plans to launch a multi-state campaign in March to drum up support, featuring stops in Michigan, Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
“A lot of places struggling with joblessness are fossil fuel dependent places that suffer from poor air and water quality. Guaranteeing the right of clean air, water and jobs is something we think a lot of people can get behind,” said Stephen O’Hanlon, a spokesman for the group.
Unions have expressed support in the past for more moderate approaches to addressing climate change, including cap-and-trade systems to curb carbon dioxide emissions.
Ocasio-Cortez and Markey’s offices did not respond to a request for comment.
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