(via caraobrien)
(New York) - People with mental disabilities, including US citizens, face a greater risk of erroneous deportation by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) because courts do not ensure fair hearings for those not able to represent themselves, Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a joint report released today. The groups urged Congress to pass legislation requiring the appointment of lawyers for all people with mental disabilities in immigration courts.
“Few areas of US law are as complicated as deportation, and yet every day people with mental disabilities must go to court without lawyers or any safeguards that make the hearings fair,” said Sarah Mehta, Aryeh Neier fellow at Human Rights Watch and the ACLU. “Some have disabilities so severe that they don’t know their own names or what a judge is.”
Read more at Human Rights Watch: Confused, Alone, And In Legal Limbo.
eartoear: irresistiblerevolution:
Modern Slavery - Human Trafficking
This is sickening. How could this be going on?
As many of you might remember, JCU held a screening of this documentary, Call + Response, this past semester. A very good film on an often overlooked topic with a more than healthy dose of talented musical artists, it comes highly recommended from yours truly.
An interesting (and all-too-short) piece on families who live on “La Chureca”, a landfill on the south shore of Lake Managua in the country of Nicaragua. Two January’s ago, I had the distinct pleasure of being able to visit this country and learn much about its culture, economy, and history and, while we went nowhere near La Chureca, we were able to see its ominous fumes rising above the city from the top of Loma de Tiscapa. It seemed daunting, dangerous, and foreboding at the time and seems even more so now that I am more aware of the situation of people in that area. According to wikipedia (hey, at least i’m telling you), La Chureca is the largest open-air dump in Central America and, while there are obvious environmental, health, and safety concerns with this sort of issue, the fact that it exists in the second poorest country in the western hemisphere increases these concerns almost infinitely.
For more information and resources for how you can get involved, visit LaChureca.org or ProNica.
