23, October 2020
Race for the White House: Trump plans to vote early on Saturday in Florida 0
US President Donald Trump will cast an early vote in the presidential election while he is visiting Florida this weekend, White House spokesman Judd Deere said on Thursday.
The Republican president plans to vote in West Palm Beach, Florida, where his Mar-a-Lago estate is situated, on Saturday, according to Deere.
This comes as he is preparing for the third and final presidential debate against his Democratic rival Joe Biden and also as he is trying to close a big gap in opinion polls before the Nov. 3 election.
Trump trails Biden significantly in national polls and needs to score some hits in the debate to steady his campaign that is struggling, in part because of his mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic.
According to polls, there are relatively few voters who have yet to make up their minds as Americans have cast more than 47 million votes for the election.
That eclipses total early voting from the 2016 presidential election with 12 days to go, according to data compiled by the US Elections Project.
Nearly 47.095 million Americans have turned in ballots, almost eight times the number of early votes cast at around same point before the 2016 contest, and just over the 47.015 million early votes that were cast before Election Day in that year.
Source: Presstv
24, October 2020
US: Cameroonian asylum seekers were subject to torture at an ICE detention center in Mississippi 0
If you thought ICE detention centers couldn’t get any worse, think again. In Mississippi, US immigration staff allegedly tortured Cameroonian asylum seekers until they signed their deportation documents. Cameroonians are seeking refuge outside of their country due to Cameroon’s Anglophone Crisis, which has been occurring since October of 2016.
According to the Central Africa branch of the International Crisis Group, 20% of the population feel marginalized.
Four years ago, strikes and riots resulted from years of frustration in the country’s Anglophone minority and led to political demands from the population. The government’s approach was deemed not effective and was forced to negotiate trade unions with Anglophones. However, the population was subject to three months without internet, six months of strikes, and one entire school year lost. Today, there is a demand for federalism or secession at a boiling point.
The Instagram account, Justice For Cameroon, details the history of migrant Cameroonians, and why some are fleeing the country and seeking refuge in the United States as a result of the crisis.
On February 5, 2019, The Washington Post also published an investigative video on the crisis in Cameroon.
For the first time since 1996, Cameroon will hold its first regional polls in December. Current President Paul Biya has been in power since 1982.
English-speaking provinces will also take part in the election process, which comes after years of separatists fighting with the government that has cost more than 3,000 lives and uncertain living conditions for many more.
The people who have fled from Cameroon have come in fear of government forces that have enacted countless civilian killings, and are are awaiting asylum hearings in ICE detention centers.
There is where the problems begin for the already threatened people.
Multiple refugees have alleged detainees were threatened with violence, choked, beaten, and pepper-sprayed as a way of forcing them to to request the complete opposite of asylum.
It is reported ICE agents put several of their detainees in handcuffs, and forcibly took their fingerprints to replace their signature for the stipulation order of removal. This meant the asylum seekers were forced to waive their rights for immigration hearings and accept deportation.
Advocates for human rights alongside attorneys reported an acceleration in deportations recently. With the election around the corner, the link between the Trump administration’s immigration policy and quicker rates of deportation is clear.
Freedom for Immigrants Executive Director, Christina Fialho said reports of the abuse began in late September and early October of 2020.
“We began to receive calls on our hotline from Cameroonian and Congolese immigrants detained in ICE prisons across the country. And they were being subjected to threats of deportation, often accompanied by physical abuse,” she said.
Fialho added that ICE thrives in secrecy, and “operates in the shadows.”
On Oct. 13, a plane flew 60 Cameroonians and 28 Congolese asylum seekers out of the country from Fort Worth Alliance Airport in Texas.
Quietly, ICE used a charter plane with no flight plan. Luckily, it was found and tracked by the immigration rights group Witness at the Border, and they reported a stopover over in Senegal, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo before landing in Kenya, and then arriving back in Texas.
In 2019, the Trump admin cut trade privileges with Cameroon due to the ongoing uprisings in the country.
The deported individuals on the flight testified about the abuse they suffered in detention centers under the Cameroonian military, with some having family murdered.
Under the U.S. immigration court system, run by the Justice Department, Cameroonians are also regularly denied asylum or parole.
A complaint filed in conjunction with FFI and the Southern Poverty Law Center recounts eight different stories with claims of abuse and torture.
One person, who was taken off the Oct.13 flight, codenamed CA, still faces deportation, but was one of the people that shared their accounts.
They claim to have been pepper-sprayed before being dragged on the ground.
“The officers told me to open my eyes. I couldn’t. My legs and hands were handcuffed. They forcefully opened my palm. Some of my fingers were broken. They forced my fingerprint on to the paper,” they said.
Source: Aldianews.com