Racism is alive and well, Thanks Trump and his supporters!

[Athos_131]

Nazi salutes and a swastika made of red cups: Newport Beach students condemned for ‘abhorrent anti-Semitic activity’

#Resist

[joan1984]

  Interesting how some take Mr. Cohen's statements to heart, now, who never prior listened, let alone believed Mr. Cohen, prior to his reading the script Lanny Davis prepared for the hearing, scheduled to counter Nuclear Weapons negotiations by our President while overseas.

  Indeed, Lanny Davis served his primary client, Mr and Mrs Clinton, as he has faithfully always, and as he sought to complicate Inmate Cohen's future, while making for 'the script' to be followed by all the Democrat Players, now through next Fall.

  The 'smooth transition' noted by Mr. Cohen, should President Trump fail in his 2020 efforts... is today an example of the smooth transition, and is the current transition to date, from the last Presidential Election, an example of what you worry about missing, should the President not be reelected next November?

  Just checkin', as if this we see today is the example for how Americans should 'transition' in order to best serve the interests of all Americans, I think your priorities are a bit scrambled.

As this country continues to spin more wildly out of control, I predict we will see overt racial appeals to white prejudice being made in 2020.  Not just dog whistles, but overt indisputable appeals to race, religion, and orientation.  “These people are not American.  They don’t deserve a vote.  Round them up and send them home.”  This is part of Cohen’s warning about “no smooth transition” if Trump loses.

[Athos_131]

Another Wall Of

#Resist

[Athos_131]

Still working extremely hard to derail this thread, eh cowardly bigot?

#Resist

[psiberzerker]

 Interesting how some take Mr. Cohen's statements to heart, now, who never prior listened, let alone believed Mr. Cohen, prior to his reading the script Lanny Davis prepared for the hearing, scheduled to counter Nuclear Weapons negotiations by our President while overseas.

  Indeed, Lanny Davis served his primary client, Mr and Mrs Clinton, as he has faithfully always, and as he sought to complicate Inmate Cohen's future, while making for 'the script' to be followed by all the Democrat Players, now through next Fall.

  The 'smooth transition' noted by Mr. Cohen, should President Trump fail in his 2020 efforts... is today an example of the smooth transition, and is the current transition to date, from the last Presidential Election, an example of what you worry about missing, should the President not be reelected next November?

  Just checkin', as if this we see today is the example for how Americans should 'transition' in order to best serve the interests of all Americans, I think your priorities are a bit scrambled.

Wow, you actually thought for a whole week before you said something.  I'm proud of you.

Now, care to say anything about the Evidence against Donald Trump, or you still busy impuning the witness?  See, impuning that particular witness isn't going to go very far, because we know he's a liar, he's Testified about the truth of what he was lying about for 10 years.

But he has signed checks.  Documents, memos, financial records, and that's EVIDENCE.  Not hearsay, not testimony, hard evidence.

Have anything to say about that, or are you busy making up who wrote his speeches for him?  Maybe you can come up with the Forger, who Forged his signature, because that wasn't a prepared speech, it was Q&A.  You can't prepare a speech for answering questions before hand.  He wasn't reading from a paper, he didn't avoid eye contact, hesitate, or even have to think about it, he just answered the questions.

[Katiebee]

Just remember, he spent 10 years lying for Trump. He has corroboration to prove the truth behind those lies. Ironic isn’t it?

[psiberzerker]

Well, apparently, Representative Ilhan Omar is an "Anti-semite" for speaking out against our military, and financial backing of Israel, as a "Foreign Power."  Those were her words, she didn't say a damned thing about the Jews, and need I remind you that Israel is not exclusively a Jewish State?  It has holy sites for Christians, and Muslims too.  Which she just might be aware of, for some reason.

Funny, how these comments are coming from the "Old Guard" Representatives, who didn't do anything about the FUCKING NAZIS marching down our streets, while the same news sources were talking about "Tolerating Intolerance."

But, apparently, talking about the foreign aid makes her an anti-Semite, while IDFK, the foreign aid between a prominant Republican, and FUCKING RUSSIA doesn't make him a suspected pinko commie.

Am I hearing that right?  Excuse me, I need to go out for a smoke. 

[_priapism]

But, apparently, talking about the foreign aid makes her an anti-Semite, while IDFK, the foreign aid between a prominant Republican, and FUCKING RUSSIA doesn't make him a suspected pinko commie.

Am I hearing that right?  Excuse me, I need to go out for a smoke. 

Nancy Pelosi is 78.  Got to look for the next boogeyman to make the poster child of the Democratic Party.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Abdullahi Omar are perfect soft targets... young, liberal, minority, FEMALE.  All the things angry white males love to hate.

[psiberzerker]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Abdullahi Omar are perfect soft targets... young, liberal, minority, FEMALE.  All the things angry white males love to hate.

Yeahuh, but they didn't call her a fucking Muslim, why?  I mean, it's not like they were ever all that shy about false accusations of Sharia law, and conspiring to let teh terrorists win before, when it was Obama.  I'm really starting to think that the don't have any concept of what Muslim really means.  I mean, if they call Obama one, and not the one wearing an actual Hijab on the House floor.

I see this neo-feminist wave of young politicians as a social experiment.  The narrative has always been that women are unfit to lead, so I'm interested to see what mistakes women make, in office.  They obviously can't fuck it up any worse than men.  I don't believe in Utopia, or Perfect government.  Government by the people is going to be imperfect, because people make mistakes.

I'd be willing to bet that if we ever got a female majority in office (Like we do in society) that they would make Different mistakes than the same ones we've been making for centuries.

[Lois]

The Semetic peoples include both the Arabs and the Jews.  They both speak Semetic languages. 

Anyone who hates Arabs OR Jews is anti-Semetic.

So just how can an Arab be anti-Semetic? Do they hate themselves?

And of course the real issue here is that there are those that are against any criticism of Isreal, and that likely hate Arabs.

[psiberzerker]

And of course the real issue here is that there are those that are against any criticism of Israel, and that likely hate Arabs.

Yeah, but one thing that bugs me is how Israel is represented in politics, as a Holy Christian site for Evangelicals, but only a Jewish state when it's convenient to accuse a Zuni of "Anti-semitism."  Not realizing that's insane, because she is a Semite could be ignorance, but the doublespeak here, when our support for Israel is exclusively as a beachead of Christianity in an (Alleged) Muslim region is downright offensive.

To all of the Christians, in Israel, Syria, Egypt, Etiopia, the list goes on and on.  The Middle East is as Christian as it is Muslim, and Jewish.  It's the same fucking GOD!  You know what God was called in the Syriac version of the bible?  (That would be the Dead Sea horde, from Syria.)  "Ĕlāhā."  All the times they pray to "God Almighty" in the King James Version, they're translating that phrase from the word Allah.  Sharia Law, Hallal is directly taken from Rabannical Law, and Koshur.  Look it up, the same thing, with minor additions here, and there, to reflect a couple centuries of Progress.

The name Ibrahim.  the Islamic name Ibrahim?  Is a reference to Abraham Israel.  No shit.  Honestly, Islam is closer to Jewish than it is to Chrisitanity, which is basically an apostate outlier at this point, ever since Saul took the papacy from Simon Peter, and ran with it to Rome.

But in Congress, they're expressly forbidden to write laws respecting an institution of religion.  Any institute of Religion, Period.  Unfortunately, the "Moral Majority" is Christian, so they have to call them "Immigrants," or "Terrorists" to write laws against them.  To outlaw THEM.  As a people, for this US vs THEM narrative that is downright unconstitutional, and unAmerican.

But they don't have the balls to call a Hijab wearing Muslim a Muslim to her face.  Either it's an insult, or it's not.

[_priapism]

It’s been said before, but bears repeating, Republican fundamentalists don’t give a shit for Jews or Israel.  The only thing they are interested in is the 2nd Coming of Christ, which they’ve been taught involves the restoration of Israel and construction of the Jewish Temple on its original location (now occupied by Muslim holy spot the Dome of the Rock).  Once that happens, we can have the Rapture, 7 years of Great Tribulation, and something called Armageddon.  These idiots actually applaud global warming, the decimation of species, war, famine, and earthquakes, as signs of the “End Times.”  And we have a *bunch* of them in Congress.  People who pray every day for the end of the world to come sooner...

[psiberzerker]

Hah, yeah.  A certain sect of American "Xians."  I'll call them Christian when they put the Christ back in the church, but the whole "Rapture" concept is bullshit.  The passage they usually quote as Gospel is actually from Paul the Apostate, in his letter to the Ephesians.  Unfortunately, it's also the "Good Parts version" where they stop reading when they hear the words they want to hear, about being taken up on high with God.

"...Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.  Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.  Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;  And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God..."

(KJV)  If you believe that story, then believe the Whole Story.  If you say that the Pauline Letters are the whole literal truth, then it says, very clearly that this is NOT judgement day, where the righteous are whisked away, and the sinners are left here for Armageddon.  It says the Righteous are armed, and armored, to FIGHT THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON.

It's a draft.  In more secular terms, you're getting drafted, for war, to Earn your citizenship in heaven, or basically the plot of Starship Troopers.  Of course, the Evangelical preachers never get to that part.  They just tell their flock that they're going to be Chosen, and get to watch the atheists suffer the end of the world from the safety of Judgement.  (And the sinners burn in hell.)  Kinda like how they missed the message that we are ALL sinners, sons, and daughters of God, and if you read the word of God, yet don't understand it?  Satan comes, and snatches it from your heart.

Incidentally, that seed, sown by the wayside, to an unbeliever who didn't understand the Word of God.  So, Satan came, and snatched it from his heart?  Yeah, Paul said he met Jesus, the sower, on the side of the road to Damascus.  Then, he took his version to Rome, where he told all the other churches how to be Christian.  That's what all those letters were.

[_priapism]

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 King James Version (KJV)

16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

But yeah, I agree with you.

[psiberzerker]

Sorry, back to modern politics:  White Jesus.  Paul is responsible for the greatest Cultural Appropriation in human history (That I know of.)  He took the Word of God, from Antioch Syria, to Rome, Europe.  Then, the Ecumenical Councils, the Council of Nicea, where the New Testament was officially written.  

With 3 Gospels, and 13 Epistles, written by Paul.  Now, we, US, are dictating how the holy state of Israel handles their invasion, and occupation of the Pharasees.  (Palastinians, and Iranians.)  We're "Stabilizing" Syria with Airstrikes, and moving the Embassy closer to our Jewish allies, away from THEIR Muslim Allies.  Instituting Travel Bans, and incidentally, a single currency, accepted around the world.

We're 1 step away from a brand on the forehead.  If I didn't know any better, the golden child with the combover was hiding a Word of Blasphemy under that coif.  Because of this, "The Rapture," they're rushing to rebuild the sepuchre (Somehow without the Arc of the Covenant) and intentionally trying to start the apocalypse, because they think they have already one.  They're the "Righteous," so they're just going to be whisked away, and get to watch everyone else suffer judgement.

I don't believe in these fairy tales any more, in fact this story of the sower, and the seed by the wayside was the crisis of faith that led me away from becoming an Antiochian monk, but I hardly see the difference between the Wrath of God, and nuclear winter over people arguing over which name to call God.  The same God.

I have a feiling, if he were real, and watching this, He wouldn't have put up with it this long.  At some point, he'd at least have something to say about His son being white, and His word being corrupted in Rome.

They say that "The lord works in mysterious ways," but He never said that.  Look it up, it never says that in the bible, but you know what?  Evil works in mysterious ways.  The ignorant, they just never stopped to ask, which Lord they were serving, but I think Jesus said it best:

"...When anyone hears the Word of God and does not understand it, the devil comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path."

The Gospel according to Matthiew, AND Mark.  At the sea of Gallilee, BEFORE Saul ever claimed to have received the word of God by the wayside.  Even if you do believe in Prophecy, IDFK how they read that, and heard that it means no jerking off, no birth control, and no abortions.

I know where they heard it though, and it wasn't from the Holy Land.  

[psiberzerker]

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 King James Version (KJV)

"You have to keep reading."  ~Bartleby

"5:1  Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

4 But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. 5 You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. 6 So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. 9 For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing."

(NiV)

[Athos_131]

Puerto Rico starts cutting food stamp benefits used by more than 1 million people amid congressional impasse

Puerto Rico has started cutting benefits paid out by a food stamps program used by more than 1 million of its residents, as federal lawmakers have not provided the island with additional emergency disaster funding amid opposition from the Trump administration.

On Monday, Puerto Rico started reducing food stamp benefits by an average of 25 percent as part of an effort to sustain a program that has seen a dramatic increase in demand in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in 2017, said a spokesman for Puerto Rico’s Department of Family Affairs.

The food stamp benefit is distributed monthly to about 1.3 million of its residents, or 43 percent of those living on the island, the spokesman said. The reductions bring the benefit levels back to where they were before the hurricane.

The benefit cut, caused by an impasse among federal lawmakers over aid funding for the U.S. territory, has sparked new fears among Puerto Ricans about a critical lifeline for poorer residents amid an explosion of hunger since the hurricane hit.

“It is dangerous. People don’t have enough money to buy food already,” said Socorro Rivera, executive director of La Fondita de Jesús, a nonprofit group near San Juan that provides food for the homeless, who worries about being overwhelmed with new requests if the issue is not resolved soon.

“It’s obvious a lot of people will have severe problems,” Rivera said.

Several federal proposals have emerged that could quickly fund the program, though only temporarily. The Trump administration has now given its support for $600 million in additional food stamp benefits for Puerto Rico as part of a broader package spearheaded by Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.), a spokeswoman for the senator said.

The Trump administration had previously dismissed House Democrats’ proposed $600 million plan to extend additional aid as “excessive and unnecessary,” amid a report in The Washington Post that President Trump told top White House officials he did not want a single dollar going to Puerto Rico because he thought the island was not using the money properly and was exploiting the federal government.

The prospects of a deal are uncertain. Perdue included funding for the Puerto Rico food stamps program in a separate bill aiming to give financial aid for farmers in states such as Georgia to improve the legislation’s chances of passing, a spokeswoman for Perdue said.

There is no vote scheduled or timeline for passage. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) may bring up Perdue’s legislation this month, according to another source with knowledge of the issue who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the source was not authorized to comment publicly on the matter.

House Democrats in January approved funding for Puerto Rico that would go beyond Perdue’s legislation, including a measure that would reduce Puerto Rico’s requirement to share the costs of some reconstruction projects.

Some Senate Democrats are pushing to include similar measures in Perdue’s aid package. Four Democratic Senators, including presidential candidates Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), sent a letter to House and Senate leadership earlier this month saying they were “deeply disappointed” the GOP bill neglects additional assistance for Puerto Rico beyond food stamp money.

Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands in September 2017, leading to thousands of deaths, causing an estimated $90 billion in damage and devastating an economy that had already been in a recession for more than a decade.

Congress and the Trump administration have since approved more than $40 billion in emergency recovery money, as well as $1.27 billion in special food stamps funding, said Federico A. de Jesús, principal of FDJ Solutions, a consulting firm, and the former deputy director of the Puerto Rico governor’s office in Washington. At least $19 billion of that $40 billion has not yet been spent, de Jesús said.

Left in the funding lurch are Puerto Rico residents like Valeria Delgado Rivera, 28, who relies on the food stamps program to feed her daughter. Her hours at a Spanish restaurant in the Puerto Rican town of Carolina were cut in half after the hurricane, increasing her dependence on the food stamps program. She said the cuts to the program may force her to buy only breakfast and dinner, once she receives her reduced benefit package later this month.

“For me, it’s difficult because the only help I get for buying food is from this program,” Rivera said. “Of course I’m scared.”

Puerto Rico’s food stamps program is uniquely dependent on periodic help from Congress, though the island does not have a voting representative in either the House or Senate, or a say in presidential elections.

In mainland U.S. states, food stamp benefits expand or contract according to each state’s need. During the Great Recession, for instance, the size of the federal food stamps programs skyrocketed, as did the number of Americans who rely on it.

Puerto Rico’s program works differently. The island administers a separate program — called the Nutrition Assistance Program, rather than the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program (or “SNAP”) received by mainland states — through an annual block grant provided by the federal government.

Because of emergency funding from Congress, food stamp benefits for Puerto Rico residents rose to $649 a month for a family of four after Hurricane Maria, matching the size of the benefit a family of four typically receives in the rest of the United States. But with cuts starting, Puerto Rico has returned to paying $410 a month for a family of four on food stamp benefits, or about 40 percent less than that received by U.S. families, a spokesman for Puerto Rico’s Department of Family Affairs said.

Even if approved by Congress, the additional $600 million allocation would fund the island’s food stamps program only until September 2019, de Jesús said.

More than 330,000 elderly people are among the Puerto Rican residents on the food stamps program, territory officials said. An additional 22,000 families asked for aid over the past year were denied assistance, a spokesman for the Department of Family Affairs said.

On average, Puerto Ricans are four times as likely to be considered “food insecure” than people living on the mainland, with about 40 percent of the island considered to lack basic access to sufficient nutritious food, said Bread for the World, a nonprofit organization that aims to end hunger. Puerto Rico’s median income is about $20,000, less than half the poorest U.S. state.

Carmen Yulín Cruz, the mayor of San Juan, said in an interview that the aid must be approved immediately and blasted the Trump administration’s January rejection of funding as “unrealistic and totally unhinged from the facts."

“This is not about politics — this is literally about people’s lives and their ability to feed their children and their elders in Puerto Rico,” Cruz said. “The need is still there.”

#Resist

[Athos_131]

Source: Leaked Documents Show the U.S. Government Tracking Journalists and Immigration Advocates Through a Secret Database

Documents obtained by NBC 7 Investigates show the U.S. government created a secret database of activists, journalists, and social media influencers tied to the migrant caravan and in some cases, placed alerts on their passports.

At the end of 2018, roughly 5,000 immigrants from Central America made their way north through Mexico to the United States southern border. The story made international headlines.

As the migrant caravan reached the San Ysidro Port of Entry in south San Diego County, so did journalists, attorneys, and advocates who were there to work and witness the events unfolding.

But in the months that followed, journalists who covered the caravan, as well as those who offered assistance to caravan members, said they felt they had become targets of intense inspections and scrutiny by border officials.

One photojournalist said she was pulled into secondary inspections three times and asked questions about who she saw and photographed in Tijuana shelters. Another photojournalist said she spent 13 hours detained by Mexican authorities when she tried to cross the border into Mexico City. Eventually, she was denied entry into Mexico and sent back to the U.S.

These American photojournalists and attorneys said they suspected the U.S. government was monitoring them closely but until now, they couldn’t prove it.

Now, documents leaked to NBC 7 Investigates show their fears weren’t baseless. In fact, their own government had listed their names in a secret database of targets, where agents collected information on them. Some had alerts placed on their passports, keeping at least two photojournalists and an attorney from entering Mexico to work.

The documents were provided to NBC 7 by a Homeland Security source on the condition of anonymity, given the sensitive nature of what they were divulging.

The source said the documents or screenshots show a SharePoint application that was used by agents from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the U.S. Border Patrol, Homeland Security Investigations and some agents from the San Diego sector of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).

The intelligence gathering efforts were done under the umbrella of “Operation Secure Line,” the operation designated to monitor the migrant caravan, according to the source.

The documents list people who officials think should be targeted for screening at the border.

The individuals listed include ten journalists, seven of whom are U.S. citizens, a U.S. attorney, and 48 people from the U.S. and other countries, labeled as organizers, instigators or their roles “unknown.” The target list includes advocates from organizations like Border Angels and Pueblo Sin Fronteras.

NBC 7 Investigates is blurring the names and photos of individuals who haven’t given us permission to publish their information.

The documents are titled “San Diego Sector Foreign Operations Branch: Migrant Caravan FY-2019, Suspected Organizers, Coordinators, Instigators and Media” and are dated January 9, 2019.

Emblazoned on it are the American and Mexican flags, with a banner that reads: "ILU-OASSIS-OMEGA." An official at the Department of Homeland Security said the seal indicates that the documents are a product of the International Liaison Unit (ILU), which coordinates intelligence between Mexico and the United States.

For each person, the documents show their photo, often from their passport but in some cases from their social media accounts, along with their personal information. That information includes the person’s date of birth, their “country of commencement,” and their alleged role tied to the migrant caravan. The information also includes whether officials placed an alert on the person’s passport.

Some individuals have a colored “X” over their photo, indicating whether they were arrested, interviewed, or had their visa or SENTRI pass revoked by officials.

In addition to flagging the individuals for secondary screenings, the Homeland Security source told NBC 7 that the agents also created dossiers on each person listed.

“We are a criminal investigation agency, we’re not an intelligence agency,” the Homeland Security source told NBC 7 Investigates. “We can’t create dossiers on people and they’re creating dossiers. This is an abuse of the Border Search Authority.”

One dossier, shared with NBC 7, was on Nicole Ramos, the Refugee Director and attorney for Al Otro Lado, a law center for migrants and refugees in Tijuana, Mexico. The dossier included personal details on Ramos, including specific details about the car she drives, her mother’s name, and her work and travel history.

After sharing the documents with Ramos, she said Al Otro Lado is seeking more information on why she and other attorneys at the law center have been targeted by border officials.

“The document appears to prove what we have assumed for some time, which is that we are on a law enforcement list designed to retaliate against human rights defenders who work with asylum seekers and who are critical of CBP practices that violate the rights of asylum seekers,” Ramos told NBC 7 by email.

In addition to the dossier on Ramos, a list of other dossier files created was shared with NBC 7. Two of the dossier files were labeled with the names of journalists but no further details were available. Those journalists were also listed as targets for secondary screenings.

Customs and Border Protection has the authority to pull anyone into secondary screenings, but the documents show the agency is increasingly targeting journalists, attorneys, and immigration advocates. Former counterterrorism officials say the agency should not be targeting individuals based on their profession.

NBC 7 Investigates sent the information to all border and law enforcement agencies the source listed, asking whether the information was valid and if these tactics were legal.

A Customs and Border Protection spokesperson did not answer NBC 7’s list of questions or confirm the validity of the documents shared.

By email, the spokesperson said, “Criminal events, such as the breach of the border wall in San Diego, involving assaults on law enforcement and a risk to public safety, are routinely monitored and investigated by authorities.”

“It is protocol following these incidents to collect evidence that might be needed for future legal actions and to determine if the event was orchestrated,” the statement read. “CBP and our law enforcement partners evaluate these incidents, follow all leads garnered from information collected, conduct interviews and investigations, in preparation for, and often to prevent future incidents that could cause further harm to the public, our agents, and our economy.”

UPDATE - 4:20 p.m.
Minutes after our story published and five days after a Customs and Border Protection spokesperson gave us the agency's statement above, CBP told our colleagues at NBC News that the names in the database are all people who were present during violence that broke out at the border in November. The agency also said journalists are being tracked so that the agency can learn more about what started that violence. CBP never clarified that point directly to NBC 7 Investigates.

UPDATE - 8:20 p.m.

Staff attorney Esha Bhandari with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, called the government's targeting of journalists and migrants "outrageous."

“This is an outrageous violation of the First Amendment. The government cannot use the pretext of the border to target activists critical of its policies, lawyers providing legal representation, or journalists simply doing their jobs. We are exploring all options in response,” Bhandari said.

Senior staff attorney Mitra Ebadolahi with the ACLU of San Diego’s Border Litigation Project called NBC 7's report the latest example of abuse of power by the CBP.

“For years, the U.S. government has used the pretext of ‘border security' to trample on Americans’ constitutional rights. This most recent example is just the latest in a steady stream of CBP abuse of authority, and once again underscores the dire need for meaningful agency oversight and accountability," Ebadolahi said.

Journalists Targeted for Border Inspections

NBC 7 Investigates spoke with seven of the journalists listed on the database as targets for secondary screenings, including freelance photojournalist Ariana Drehsler.

“I'm interested in covering social and political issues,” Drehsler said, adding that she covered the migrant caravan in Tijuana for Buzzfeed News and United Press International.

“I think there's a lot of misconceptions, maybe from both sides, about who are these people that are trying to seek asylum,” Drehsler said. “So I think as a photojournalist, it is my responsibility to cover that to the best of my abilities.”

Drehsler estimated she had crossed the border from San Ysidro dozens of times covering the caravan.

“I was very transparent about what I was doing,” Drehsler said. “Sometimes you would see me carrying a camera and if I was asked by an agent what was I doing, I would tell them I was photographing the [migrant] shelters.”

But on December 30, 2018, when Drehsler was crossing back into the United States, she was pulled into secondary inspection and questioned by border agents.

“Two people in plainclothes came down and took me to another room,” Drehsler said. “They questioned me in a small room, asking me questions about the shelter, what was I seeing there, who was I working for.”

“They said that I was on the ground and they’re not, which I thought was really interesting.”

After about an hour, Drehsler said she was allowed to leave but agents warned her that an alert had been placed on her passport and that she would be pulled into a secondary screening again if she crossed the border. The agents told her to plan accordingly, given the screenings could last an hour or more. When she asked why this alert was placed on her passport, agents told her they had no idea.

Drehsler said she was pulled into secondary screenings two more times while crossing the border. Each time she said she was questioned by the same agents in plainclothes. The second time was on Jan. 2, 2019, and the third time was on Jan. 4, 2019.

On the third occasion, Drehsler said she was told to leave her gear, including her camera and cell phone, on a table outside of the interview room. When she returned, she said it didn’t appear to her that the gear had been looked through. Agents asked Drehsler if she could show them the photos she had taken but she said she declined.

Some of the questions agents asked Drehsler on the third screening struck her as odd.

“They asked about the new caravan and if word had gotten out about how difficult it is to seek asylum in the U.S.,” Drehsler said. “Then before I left, the female agent asked if I rented or owned my home.”

Drehsler told NBC 7 the personal details listed for her in the leaked screenshots are accurate. She confirmed the photo officials used came from her passport. The screenshots include a green “X” over Drehsler’s photograph, indicating she had been interviewed by agents.

Sharing the documents with Drehsler, she told NBC 7 she was “blown away.”

“I have so many questions; I have more questions than answers,” she said. “Personally, I don't understand what [agents] are hoping to find.”

Other journalists and attorneys have previously told news outlets like NPR and The Intercept that they too faced the same kind of increased scrutiny surrounding their work involving the migrant caravan.

Evidence of increased scrutiny of journalists at the border was detailed in an October 2018 report prepared by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ.)

The report identified 37 journalists who said they found the secondary screenings by border officials “invasive,” and said 20 cases involved border agents “conducting warrantless searches of [the journalists’] electronic devices.”

The journalists featured in the leaked documents said they were separated from their electronic devices and gear but had no evidence that agents had gone through their items.

Kitra Cahana is another freelance photojournalist and U.S. citizen listed as a target in the documents. By phone from Honduras, Cahana told NBC 7 she also faced increased scrutiny and was eventually denied entry into Mexico for no apparent reason.

Cahana's work has been featured in National Geographic magazine, The New York Times and the CBC out of Canada. One night in late December, she said Mexican authorities photographed her passport while she and other journalists were working near the border.

Then, on Jan. 17, 2019, while traveling from Canada to Mexico City, Cahana said she had a connecting flight in Detroit, Michigan. Cahana said in Montreal, her passport was flagged while going through U.S. Customs pre-clearance. Cahana said she was pulled into a secondary screening where border agents asked her a list of questions about her work.

“They were interested in whether I had an assignment when I was going down to cover the caravan,” Cahana said. “And they wanted to know how I was funding my work.”

Cahana said she was asked to explain how freelance photojournalism works, which she found strange. Afterward, her passport was flagged again in Detroit but eventually, she was allowed to board her flight and fly to Mexico City.

But when she arrived in Mexico, her passport was flagged again. Cahana said she brought this to a Mexican official and was taken into a back room with another group of detained individuals.

There, Cahana said her phone was taken away and she couldn’t leave the room. When she needed to use the restroom, an agent escorted her.

“I wasn't allowed to be in communication with anyone, I wasn’t allowed to contact my embassy,” Cahana said. “It was very confusing because my Spanish is quite limited and no one there really spoke English.”

Cahana said the whole ordeal lasted 13 hours and in the end, she was denied entry into Mexico. She had to wait until a plane arrived that could take her back to Detroit, where her flight originated.

Since then, Cahana said she tried one more time to cross the border into Mexico.

“I was trying to cross into Mexico through Guatemala to continue my work covering the caravan and then I was denied again,” Cahana said.

NBC 7 Investigates confirmed another journalist was denied entry into Mexico after covering the caravan in January. That journalist is also listed in the SharePoint files leaked to NBC 7.

In the documents shared with NBC 7, Cahana confirmed her personal details were accurate and that the photo used is from her passport. Cahana said she’s been in contact with the Committee to Protect Journalists and the ACLU as far as the alert placed on her passport, preventing her access to Mexico.

Cahana said the increased scrutiny by border officials could have a chilling effect on freelance journalists covering the border.

“In the current state of journalism, it's really freelancers who are bringing so much news to the public,” Cahana said. “And the uncertainty of having an alert placed on your passport and not knowing where and when that's going to prevent you from doing your work is really problematic.”

#Resist

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Fox News' Pirro says Rep. Omar's hijab could signal views 'antithetical' to Constitution

#Resist

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Let’s Remember How Acceptable It's Become to Hate Muslims

When we think about the attack on two mosques in New Zealand, which killed at least 49 people, it would serve us well to remember just how widespread and acceptable the hatred of Muslims is in Western society.

Islamophobia is everywhere. It cuts across party lines and political ideologies. It is a mainstream form of racism for which there are few consequences.

Studies have shown the preponderance of negative media coverage of Muslims cannot be explained away as merely news coverage of violent events. One study found that “Muslims are clearly distinctive as the only [religious] group associated with overwhelmingly negative coverage.”

Just this past week, a host on Fox News—the most popular and influential cable news network in America—implied that Rep. Ilhan Omar might not be loyal to America because she wears a hijab. The host was let off with a slap on the wrist and has suffered no other punishment. Why would she? Fox News has been a breeding ground for anti-Muslim hatred for years and years.

The second-longest-serving late night talk show host in America is Bill Maher. He is, for some reason, beloved by many liberals. He is also a committed Islamophobe. Here he is talking about the popularity of the name Mohammed in Britain:

“Am I a racist to feel that I’m alarmed by that? Because I am. And it’s not because of the race, it’s ’cause of the religion. I don’t have to apologize, do I, for not wanting the Western world to be taken over by Islam in three hundred years?”

Maher was not hounded off of television for any of these comments. Everything’s fine for him.

Speaking of Britain, things are perhaps even worse there. The British media routinely blares Islamophobic, false propaganda across its front pages. One of its most respectable conservative magazines has a regular columnist named Rod Liddle, who wrote a column last year which included the headline, “my own view is that there is not enough Islamophobia within the Tory party.” He suffered absolutely no consequences for this.

Liddle wrote this in defense of Boris Johnson, the former foreign minister for the British government, after Johnson compared Muslim women in burqas to “letterboxes” and bank robbers. Johnson, whose long history of Islamophobia and racism has not prevented him from reaching the height of British politics, also suffered absolutely no consequences for this. He is still a potential front-runner to become the next British prime minister.

Even if Johnson were to reach those heights, he would pale in prominence next to the most powerful Islamophobe in the world: the president of the United States, whose pledge to ban Muslims from America helped him get elected, and whose decision to carry out that pledge was upheld by the Supreme Court.

In Australia, where the suspect in the New Zealand attack is alleged to live, Islamophobia is a healthy and thriving part of political culture, where the two main parties vie to see who can crack down more on mostly Muslim immigrants who are trying to reach the country’s shores. These policies have been embraced by the far right around the world.

These are just a tiny number of examples. But the truth is obvious. You can hate Muslims and still make tons of money on television. You can hate Muslims and be a highly successful politician. You can hate Muslims and never lose your elite perch in the media. And if you violently target Muslims, it’s more likely than not that people will move on quickly. It’s long past time for that to change.

#Resist