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Early Arrival: Cayuga Center has a History of Abuse

Early Arrival: Family Seeking Asylum Followed the Rules, Still Separated – Gov't Ordered to Stop Drugging Kids – Admin was Warned on Family Separation

A New York Times investigation into the Cayuga Center, the foster care agency that has housed hundreds of children separated from their parents, revealed a history of abuse at its upstate center. Cayuga has largely received praise from city officials and advocates but former employees and court records paint a more troubling picture. Former staffers at the agency’s Auburn, New York, facility were arrested on charges of abuse, and local police received hundreds of calls about runaways. One of whom, Destani Williams, was found dead in May 2017. The New York Times

Good morning, and welcome to Early Arrival. I’m Mazin Sidahmed, here to take you through the latest in local and national immigration news and analysis. If you have feedback, suggestions, tips or leads, reach out at mazin.sidahmed@documentedny.com or on Twitter.

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Ellis Island

Neo-Nazi Hate Group Holds Protest
Identity Evropa, a neo-Nazi hate group, held a rally in Inwood on Saturday where they unfurled a large banner which read “STOP THE INVASION, END IMMIGRATION” on the Billings Arcade in Fort Tryon park. The Trump-supporting collective is labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Earlier in the day, the group drew condemnation for a rally outside the Mexican consulate in Manhattan. Mexico’s Foreign Ministry condemned the group for shouting racist comments outside the consulate. Some members of the group dressed as construction workers and held up large letters that spelled “Build the Wall.” GothamistReuters

NJ County Refuses Federal Grant Over ICE Detainers
New Jersey’s attorney general has asked Hudson County to put a hold on a federal law enforcement grant, as it would have required them to comply with ICE detainer requests. The state is part of a lawsuit against the Department of Justice, stemming from its decision to withhold grants from the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program to “sanctuary” cities. If the county formally accepted the grant it would be required to allow ICE agents access to county jails. The county said it complied with the attorney general’s request and will not move finalize the grant. The Jersey Journal

Nielsen and Pence Greeted by Protestors 
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Vice President Mike Pence were greeted by dozens of women dressed in the red robes and white bonnets of The Handmaid’s Tale, a dystopian drama, in Manhattan on Tuesday. The women, part of the Refuse Fascism group, laid tiny shoes, toys and clothes, to represent the children who were separated from their families, in front of the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in Lower Manhattan. Pence and Nielsen were attending DHS’s National Cybersecurity Summit. ABC News

6 Activists Arrested Protesting in Front of Amazon Store
Approximately 100 protesters gathered in front of the Amazon store in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday to protest Silicon Valley’s ties to ICE. The group from Science For the People, and Movimiento Cosecha NYC, as well as the Rude Mechanical Orchestra marched in front of Microsoft’s and Salesforce’s offices before arriving at Amazon Books. Six protestors were arrested after staging a small sit-in, blocking the entrance to Amazon Books, Gizmodo reports. Microsoft and Salesforce have come under fire for cloud computing contracts they maintain with ICE. According to Gizmodo, Amazon is not directly associated with ICE but provides support to Palantir, which provides facial recognition software to law enforcement. Gizmodo

NYC to Send Volunteers to Legal Assistance Effort at Border, Associated Press

ICE Paid N.J. to Detain This man. Was it Blood Money? By Star-Ledger Editorial Board [Opinion]

New York City’s ‘Little Haiti’ Makes a Big Impression, The Wall Street Journal

How 6 Italian Immigrants From the South Bronx Carved Some of the Nation’s Most Iconic Sculptures, 6sqft

More Cities and States Should Divest From Private Prisons, By Comptroller Scott Stringer and Javier H. Valdes, co-executive of Make the Road New York, The New York Times [Opinion]

National

It has been 118 days since Memphis-based journalist Manuel Durán was detained by immigration authorities after first being arrested by the Memphis Police Department while covering a protest. Documented will keep a running tally of how long Durán remains in detention

Judge Orders Government to Stop Drugging Kids
Federal Judge Dolly Gee ordered the government on Monday to stop medicating detained immigrant children without parental consent. The ruling came in the longstanding Flores lawsuit after lawyers argued that the government had violated the settlement by drugging children. The judge also ruled that children should be removed from the Shiloh Treatment Center in Manvel, Texas, due to the conditions in the facility, such as denying children drinking water and private phone calls. Reveal

Reunited Families Facing Deportation
Some of the families who were recently reunited under last week’s deadline are now facing a new challenge of fighting a swift deportation. Lawsuits filed in San Diego and Washington request that judges stay the deportation of up to 1,000 families who were recently reunited, as long as needed to help their children pursue asylum claims. Children who were separated from their parents may have stronger claims for asylum as the government has classified them as adolescents who came to the country alone, which creates new legal avenues. The New York Times

Migrant Boy is not the Same After Separation
Ana Carolina Fernandes was overjoyed to be reunited with her son after 50 days of separation. However, her 5-year-old son, Thiago, is not the same, The New York Times reports. He now enjoys pretending to be border patrol and patting down and shackling migrants. He’s among the more than 1,800 children who were reunited with their parents over the last few weeks, many of whom are exhibiting signs of mental health issues. The New York Times

How one County Blocked an ICE Detention Center
For many years, ICE has been hoping to build a detention facility that could consolidate immigrants scattered in jails around the Midwest. After seven failed attempts since 2011, private prison company CoreCivic Inc. proposed to build a detention center in Elkhart County, Illinois, two hours east of Chicago. This led to a county wide campaign by religious and business leaders to shut the project down. It brought together leaders of the politically diverse area as county officials struck an awkward balancing act. Associated Press

A Family Faces an Impossible Choice: Reunite Child With her Detained Mother or Undocumented Father? The Intercept

Tampa Police Arrest Anti-ICE Protesters who Were Locked Together by the Neck, Tampa Bay Times

Jesse Watters: Trump Wants the ‘Best and Brightest’ Immigrants, not ‘Some guy’s Uncle from Zimbabwe,’ Mediate

Washington – Trump Admin Was Warned About Family Separation

A Department of Health and Human Services official said on Tuesday that he warned the Trump administration against separating families, and it could cause “traumatic psychological injury” for the children.

During an oversight hearing at the Senate Judiciary Committee on family separations, Commander Jonathan D. White, who works for of a branch of HHS, said his agency was worried about any policy that separated families and was concerned they did not have the resources to handle a large number of detained immigrants.

White said that Trump administration officials said there was no policy which would result in separation.

Alongside White, was ICE Executive Associate Director Matthew Albence, who, under questioning on the conditions at family detention centers, said they were “like a summer camp.” Associated Press

Trump doubled down on his push to fund the border wall on Monday, as he called for a government shutdown unless he gets the appropriate funding. Congress must pass a spending bill by the end of September to avoid a shutdown. Trump is insisting on $25 billion to build a wall along the Mexico–U.S. border. However, he added he is open to negotiations. Reuters

McConnell to Trump: I too Like the Wall, Politico

Senators Want Investigation of Immigrant Abuse Allegations, Associated Press



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