We talk about pardons for immigrants in detention and then discuss a few Trump cases as he settles in to take office next month. 

Show Notes 

Part II of Craig’s article that discusses all the biblical protagonists who would have been unlawful under U.S. immigration law, “You Were Told to Love the Immigrant, But What If the Story Never Happened? Hospitality and United States Immigration Law,” Vincentian Heritage Journal: Vol. 33: Iss. 1, Article 8, can be found at:  https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2784951 

Craig has previously challenged the interpretation of biblical passages by former Senator and Attorney General Jeff Sessions in “The Bible: the Perfect Primer on Immigration Law for Senator Sessions,” at: file:///Users/cmousin/Downloads/Challenge%20Response%20Blog%20-%20Chicago%20Theological%20Seminary_stamped-2.pdf  which was then followed by  

“Faith Resisting Authority in the Name of Justice and Love: Immigration Law and the Bible” which can be found at: https://soundcloud.com/bcicirel/faith-resisting-authority-in-the-name-of-justice-and-love-immigration-law-and-the-bible?in=bcicirel/sets/vincentian-heritage-podcast 

Law professors Peter L. Markowitz and Lindsay Nash raised the issue of pardons in their law review article, “Pardoning Immigrants,” 93 N.Y.U. Law Rev. 58 (2018).  They cite the pardon of Sheriff Joe on page 77.  They also mention the case of Biddle v. Perovich, 274 US 480,486 (1927), where the Supreme Court found that the pardon permits the President to decide “that the public welfare will be better served by inflicting less than the judgment fixed.”  

The Human Rights Watch report written by Michael Garcia Bochenek, “We Need to Take Away Children, Zero Accountability Six Years After 'Zero Tolerance,'” December 16, 2024' contains the quote that we cited at p. 10 of the report:  

 https://www.hrw.org/report/2024/12/16/we-need-take-away-children/zero-accountability-six-years-after-zero-tolerance 

We apologize for mistakenly claiming President Biden pardoned the former Treasurer of Dixon, Illinois and that she embezzled 62 million dollars.  President Biden commuted her sentence.  She was convicted of embezzling 53.7 million dollars. See: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndil/pr/former-dixon-comptroller-rita-crundwell-sentenced-nearly-20-years-federal-prison-537 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/19/us/politics/ann-selzer-iowa-trump.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/16/nyregion/trump-immunity-criminal-case.html

Mr. Homan makes a false claim that nine out of ten people who claim asylum never get relief.  (“Chicago to be ground zero for mass deportations, Trump border czar tells Illinois Republicans,” Tina Sfondeles, December 9, 2024, Chicago Sun Times: 

 https://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/donald-trump/2024/12/09/border-czar-tom-homan-donald-trump-chicago-pritzker-brandon-johnson-immigration?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=12102024%20Morning%20Edition&utm_content=12102024%20Morning%20Edition+CID_9e386f999f41eb3cc9b8411a2058045c&utm_source=cst_campaign_monitor&utm_term=Chicago%20will%20be%20ground%20zero%20for%20mass%20deportations%20Trump%20border%20czar%20tells%20Illinois%20Republicans&tpcc=cst_cm 

First, it is unclear what asylum seekers he is discussing.  Many who claim asylum at the border have their cases heard in immigration courts around the nation.  The TRAC report on “Asylum Decision” which is calculated through October 2024 demonstrates that at many courts, those asylum seekers with representation obtain relief.  If the case remains at the border, the number obtaining relief even with representation falls.  This, however, proves the point that those seeking mass deportation seek to deny the bona fide asylum seekers a fair chance to present their cases when pressure to move cases through the system are expedited at the border.  Compare, for example, Chicago immigration courts with the court in El Paso:   TRAC: “Asylum Decisions” (through October 2024): https://trac.syr.edu/phptools/immigration/asylum/ 

TRAC also reveals the ongoing difficulties to obtain representation: “Too Few Immigration Attorneys: Average Representation Rates Fall from 65% To 30%,” https://trac.syr.edu/reports/736/ 

The National Immigrant Justice Center’s “Snapshot of ICE Detention: Inhumane Conditions and Alarming Expansion, IMMIGRATION DETENTION AT A GLANCE, September 2024” can be found at:    https://immigrantjustice.org/sites/default/files/content-type/research-item/documents/2024-09/ICE-Detention-Snapshot_September-2024.pdf 

Information on the numbers of undocumented workers in the national workforce can be found at:  April Rubin, “The industries that could be hardest hit by Trump's immigration crackdown,” 

https://www.axios.com/2024/11/19/undocumented-workers-immigration-deportation-trump 

For a discussion of Harold Washington and his Executive Order and the Chicago history of rebutting the Fugitive Slave Act requirements, see, Craig B. Mousin, “A Clear View from the Prairie: Harold Washington and the People of Illinois Respond to Federal Encroachment of Human Rights”:  https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2997657 

ACTION STEP 

Join the 198 advocacy organizations that called on the Biden Administration to close immigration detention facilities and reduce detention.  (See: Billal Rahman, November 19, 2024, “Biden Urged To Close Detention Centers Before Trump's Mass Deportations,” 

 https://www.newsweek.com/biden-detention-centers-trump-mass-deportation-1988212?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=7337d344-cc24-43c8-8239-5deddae494dd ) 

You can send an email to your elected members of Congress through the American Immigration Council’s Immigration Justice Campaign:  https://immigrationjustice.quorum.us/campaign/biden-last-requests/ 

Please share this podcast and this link with others to join in this advocacy.   

We talk about several news stories on this week's show. Check out our show notes below:

For more information on the disproportionate toll on Palestinians lives since 1917, see Rashid Khalidi, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine, A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017, (N.Y., Henry Holt & Co., 2020). 

The Haaretz podcast quoted in this episode can be found at: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/podcasts/2024-11-30/ty-article-podcast/.premium/netanyahus-war-on-the-israeli-media-and-how-it-is-already-affecting-press-freedom/00000193-7e85-d7fe-a393-7f8d17600000 

For a general summary of anti-BDS laws in the United States, see:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-BDS_laws 

The story about Mr. Moshe Yaalon, “Former Defense Minister Accuses Israel of Committing War Crimes in Gaza,” by Adam Rasgon, Liam Stock, and Natan Odenheimer,  N.Y. Times, December 1, 2024, can be found at:  https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/01/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-yaalon.html?searchResultPosition=1 

Consider subscribing to Haaretz for current information:  https://promotion.haaretz.com/offers?htm_source=site&htm_medium=button&htm_campaign=subscription&htm_campaign_type=subscription&htm_content=hello_default 

For Robert Reich’s discussion of the Hunter Biden pardon, see:  https://mail.proton.me/u/9/almost-all-mail/Am-6ux8A5oEB0nmcKi31CF20XS8OhqQudOuS2jZXVuhKuHqY_ow6xCSLufsK90KwVBhZVxHA9cEUmIEBpjPjKw==#keyword=Reich

You can find the op-ed by Thomas Friedman, “Mr. Trump, Do You Realize How Much the World Has Changed Since You Were President?” Nov. 26, 202 at:   

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/26/opinion/trump-israel-iran.html 

Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, October 3, 1863,  can be found at:  https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/docs/transcript_for_abraham_lincoln_thanksgiving_proclamation_1863.pdf 

A colleague on the same Solidarity Pilgrimage with me posted the following statement about our trip: https://substack.com/home/post/p-152180354

For more information on how Palestinians have had their human rights violated for over a century, see Rashid Khalidi, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine, A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017, (N.Y., Henry Holt & Co., 2020). 

Visit the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center at https://sabeel.org  and the Community Renewal Society at:  https://www.communityrenewalsociety.org/ 

A short solo podcast this week. Talking about what we talked about last week and clarifying for some listeners.

Craig and Cecil talk about the election results, what to do next and how to move forward. 

Notes for this episode:

We spend much of this week's show talking about and playing clips from the Madison Square Garden Rally. We also cover some news stories about Elon Musk and a new defamation lawsuit filed against Donald Trump

Trump at the Garden: A Closing Carnival of Grievances, Misogyny and Racism

There’s a Big New Defamation Lawsuit Against Trump. It’s a Slam Dunk.

Elon Musk, enemy of ‘open borders,’ launched his career working illegally

Philadelphia DA sues Elon Musk over $1 million giveaway to registered voters : NPR

Our guest Today is Dr. Jennifer McCoy, Ph.D. She is  a Professor of Political Science at Georgia State University. We discussed Pernicious Polarization, what causes it, and how to combat it.

Overcoming Polarization Journal of Democracy, Volume 32, Number 1, January 2021, Johns Hopkins University Press

Jennifer McCoy is professor of political science at Georgia State University and nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She was a senior core fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Budapest, Hungary in spring 2019.  McCoy was chosen for the inaugural class of Distinguished University Professorships at Georgia State University in 2013. Specializing in international and comparative politics, Dr. McCoy's areas of expertise include democratic resilience, democratic erosion, and partisan polarization; crisis prevention and conflict resolution; democracy promotion and collective defense of democracy; election processes and international election observation; and Latin American Politics. McCoy’s research program on polarized politics aims to identify the causes, consequences for democracy, and solutions to polarized societies around the world, including the United States. She coined the term “pernicious polarization” to refer to the political polarization that divides societies into mutually distrustful “Us vs. Them” camps, and undermines the capacity of democracies to address critical policy problems.  

This week we talk about several news stories. All the stories are linked below.

Megachurch pastor tells congregation to "vote like Jesus" by supporting Trump

'Trump Bible' one of few that meet Walters' criteria for Oklahoma classrooms

FBI Kavanaugh probe tightly controlled by Trump White House, congressional report finds - The Washington Post

DeSantis Threatening Jail Time for Running Abortion Rights Ads in Florida - TPM – Talking Points Memo

 Trump wages campaign against real-time fact checks - The Washington Post