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Family Separation

1 MCALLEN, TX - JUNE 12: Central American asylum seekers wait as U.S. Border Patrol agents take groups of them into custody on June 12, 2018 near McAllen, Texas. The families were then sent to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) processing center for possible separation. U.S. border authorities are executing the Trump administration's zero tolerance policy towards undocumented immigrants. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions also said that domestic and gang violence in immigrants' country of origin would no longer qualify them for political-asylum status. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

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2010s Gina Leon
Contents of this path:
1. 2010 SB1070 Anti-Immigration Bill in Arizona
2. 2010 Repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”
3. 2011 Obama officially Declares an End to the War on Iraq and that the US is to pull out.
4. 2012 California voters approved a ballot measure that would amend the state’s highly controversial Three Strikes law. https://blackyouthproject.com/ca-voters-approve-ballot-measure-reforming-three-strikes-law/ The revised law would require that the third offense be of a serious or violent nature–not something as minor as writing a bad check or, in a much-cited example, stealing a pair of socks. “Tonight’s vote on Proposition 36 sends a powerful message to policymakers in California and across the country that taxpayers are ready for a new direction in criminal justice,” Adam Gelb, director of the Pew Center on the States’ Public Safety Performance Project, told the San Jose Mercury News. “States that have already made some changes to their sentencing laws may be inspired to take a second look, and states that haven’t made significant changes yet may start.” In addition to altering the sentencing guidelines for future convicts, Prop 36 also creates a pathway for nearly 3,000 inmates currently serving life sentences under the Three Strikes Law to petition for a reduced term.
5. 2012 The fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin An unarmed black teenager, in Florida by an armed neighborhood-watch volunteer prompts Obama to say: “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.” The man who shot Martin is found not guilty of second-degree murder and acquitted of manslaughter, a lesser charge. But some protesters claim Martin was only stopped because of racial profiling. After Martin’s parents raised concerns about the police investigation into the death of their son, who had no criminal record, the case gained national attention. Protest rallies were held in cities nationwide, including New York City, where on March 21 hundreds of people gathered for the Million Hoodie March and demanded justice for Martin, who many believed Zimmerman had profiled as suspicious and threatening simply because the teen was Black. Two days later, President Barack Obama said of the shooting: “If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon.” In addition to raising a national debate about race relations, the shooting drew attention to Florida’s controversial Stand Your Ground law, which allows people to use lethal force if they fear for their safety and does not require them to retreat from a dangerous situation, even when it’s possible to do so. On April 11, 2012, following weeks of demonstrations, a special prosecutor appointed by Florida’s governor charged Zimmerman with second-degree murder. He pleaded not guilty and the case went to trial in June 2013. In court, the prosecution portrayed Zimmerman as a wannabe cop who had profiled Martin as a criminal, chased him down and fought him. Prosecutors also tried to poke holes in Zimmerman’s self-defense claim by pointing to inconsistencies in his statements to the police. Defense attorneys for Zimmerman, who did not take the stand, contended he only shot Martin after the teen attacked him. On July 13, after deliberating for 16 hours over two days, a jury of six women found Zimmerman not guilty. (https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/florida-teen-trayvon-martin-is-shot-and-killed)
6. June 25, 2013: Voting Rights Act Walked Back In Shelby County v. Holder, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 vote, rules that Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional, holding that the constraints placed on certain states and federal review of states' voting procedures, known as preclearance, are outdated. Seen as a blow to civil rights activists, since the ruling, which affected nine states and several counties and townships, a federal commission found at least 23 states had enacted "newly restrictive statewide voter laws." These include polling place closures, voter ID laws, limiting early voting and more. Not Released (NR) **Agency/Wires: This photo was licensed from an agency and any use must be consistent with the terms of the agreement for that agency. Unless otherwise noted, we have the right to use the photo for one-time use in connection with a particular story. We may not re-use, sublicense or distribute this photo, except via our API/RSS in conjunction with the story for which the photo was licensed, but you may re-license the photo for subsequent use by going back to the agency.** The Voting Rights Act is often called the crown jewel of the civil rights movement, yet many Americans do not know why or how it was passed. Pictured, NAACP Field Director Charles White speaks on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, June 25, 2013, after the court limited use of a major part of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, in effect invalidating a key enforcement provision. Here are some key moments and characters in the voting rights saga. Mark Wilson/Getty Images Three young civil rights workers were murdered in 1964 in Mississippi while trying to register black voters. The infamous murders showed that segregationists were willing to kill to keep African-Americans from voting. MPI/Getty Images John Lewis, a young activist who later became a congressman of Georgia, heads to a fateful encounter on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama during a 1965 march. Lewis was brutally assaulted by state troopers during the "Bloody Sunday" march that made voting rights a national issue. Birmingham News /Landov Marchers during the 1965 voting rights campaign in Selma, Alabama gather for a rally on March 26, 1965, a few weeks after "Bloody Sunday." Black residents were beaten, fired from their jobs and imprisoned trying to vote. Stringer/AFP/Getty Images Viola Liuzzo, a Detroit housewife, was murdered while participating in the voting rights campaign in Selma, Alabama, in 1965. Her death outraged the nation and helped spur passage of the Voting Rights Act. AP President Lyndon Johnson, pictured here discussing the act with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1965, went on national television to call for passage of the Voting Rights Act. He ended his speech by saying, "And we shall overcome." Hulton Archive/Getty Images Rep. John Lewis speaks after bipartisan House and Senate officials met to voice support for reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act for an additional 25 years on May 2, 2006. From left, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and other officials listen during the media conference. Mark Wilson/Getty Images President George W. Bush signs reauthorization of the act on July 27, 2006. From left, Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan, Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisconsin, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, and Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tennessee, look on. G. Fabiano-Pool/Getty Images President Barack Obama marches with civil right veterans during a commemoration march in 2007. Scott Olson/Getty Images A conservative judge called the Voting Rights Act a racial entitlement but supporters of the act say it is the crowning victory of the civil rights movement. Pictured, people gather for a post-march rally after crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the "Bloody Sunday" anniversary, March 4, 2012. Birmingham News/Tamika Moore /Landov Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Executive Director Barbara Arnwine speaks during a news conference to voice opposition to state photo ID voter laws with the Rev. Jesse Jackson and members of Congress at the U.S. Capitol July 13, 2011. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images A supporter of the Voting Rights Act rallies in the South Carolina State House in Columbia on February 26, 2013, the day before oral hearings at the Supreme Court. Richard Ellis/Getty Images The Rev. Jesse Jackson, at the microphone, and the Rev. Al Sharpton, left, deliver remarks during a rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on February 27, 2013, as the court prepared to hear oral arguments in Shelby County v. Holder, the legal challenge to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Supporters of the Voting Rights Act listen to speakers discussing the rulings outside the U.S. Supreme Court building on Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Win McNamee/Getty Images
7. 2013 The Black Lives Matter Movement
8. 2014 Beginning of Water Crisis in Flint, MI
9. 2014 YES on Prop 47 - When California reversed tough-on-crime policies earlier this month many cheered, saying the state blazed a trail for a more enlightened approach to crime and punishment across the United States. (The Guardian) Prop. 47, the Safe Neighborhood and Schools Act, will be on the ballot this November. It would change the lowest-level, nonviolent crimes such as simple drug possession and petty theft from felonies to misdemeanors. The savings would go toward preventing crime. If it passes, California will lead the nation in ending felony sentencing for the lowest level, non-violent crimes, permanently reduce incarceration and shift $1 billion in the next five years alone from the state corrections department to K-12 school programs and mental health and drug treatment. This reform maintains the current law for anyone with prior convictions for rape, murder or child molestation. At the same time, Prop. 47 reduces the barriers that many people with a low-level, non-violent felony conviction face to becoming stable and productive citizens, such as a lack of employment, housing and access to assistance programs and professional trades. Yes on Prop. 47 is supported by law enforcement leaders, crime victims, teachers, rehabilitation experts, business leaders, faith-based leaders and civil rights organizations, as well as the ACLU of California. This reform will focus our law enforcement resources on violent and serious crime, and use the savings in prison spending to prevent crime.
10. 2015-2016- SPARC's CITY WIDE MURAL PROGRAM
11. 2015 Changes to California Equal Pay Act - 50 years on, women still fighting for equal pay in 2015, Governor Brown signed the California Fair Pay Act, which strengthened the Equal Pay Act in a number of ways and signaled California’s commitment to achieving real gender pay equity. 2. What were the most significant changes to the Equal Pay Act? Requiring equal pay for employees who perform “substantially similar work,” when viewed as a composite of skill, effort, and responsibility. Eliminating the requirement that the employees being compared work at the “same establishment.” Making it more difficult for employers to justify inequities in pay through the “bona fide factor other than sex” defense. Ensuring that any legitimate factors relied upon by the employer for pay inequities are applied reasonably and account for the entire pay difference. Explicitly stating that retaliation against employees who seek to enforce the law is illegal, and making it illegal for employers to prohibit employees from discussing or inquiring about their co-workers’ wages. Extending the number of years that employers must maintain wage and other employment-related records from two years to three years.
12. 2016 Standing Rock Protest Against Oil Pipeline
13. 2016 Promise Zone Designation in South LA
14. 2017 Why communities fighting for fair policing also demand environmental justice
15. La Bestia - One side from " Paletas de la Frontera" by Judith F. Baca (2021)
16. 2017 #MeToo Movement and Exposing Sexual Violence in Hollywood
17. 2018 From separation to detention
18. Border Wall
19. Family Separation MCALLEN, TX - JUNE 12: Central American asylum seekers wait as U.S. Border Patrol agents take groups of them into custody on June 12, 2018 near McAllen, Texas. The families were then sent to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) processing center for possible separation. U.S. border authorities are executing the Trump administration's zero tolerance policy towards undocumented immigrants. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions also said that domestic and gang violence in immigrants' country of origin would no longer qualify them for political-asylum status. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
20. Children in Cages
21. Children in Cages, Detention Center during the Trump Era
22. 2018 California Endowment: Central Valley Mural Project
23. "Immigrants Feed America" by Judith Baca (2018) In 2017 Central Valley Mural Project and SPARC began the installation of eight murals throughout the Central Valley on health, wellness and social justice in immigrant and agricultural communities. Sponsored by the California Endowment, the SPARC team will be completing murals in Bakersfield, Lamont, Merced, Fresno, Armona, Tulare, Modesto, and Stockton. Partners include the United Farm Workers, ACT for Women and Girls, the Dolores Huerta Foundation, El Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Indígena Oaxaqueño, El Concilio, Community Medical Centers-Stockton, We’Ced, and the Kings County Cultural Center.
24. 2018 LA Legalizes Street Vending
25. Immigrant detention system has grown since 2017 - "THE DETENTION MACHINE HAS EXPLODED" The detention machine has exploded, resulting in billions of dollars in revenue for private operators. Since 2017, 40 new detention facilities have opened. Most are run by private operators. As of January 2020, 81 percent of detained people are in facilities owned and/or operated by private companies; that number jumps to 91 percent for people who are detained in facilities that opened after 2017. For Fiscal Year 2021, the Trump administration has requested that taxpayers fund ICE at $4.1 billion, with the intent to expand ICE’s daily detention capacity to 60,000 people on any given day.
26. 2018 Korematsu, Notorious Supreme Court Ruling on Japanese Internment, Is Finally Tossed Out A Japanese internment camp in Manzanar, Calif., in 1942. In upholding President Trump’s travel ban on Tuesday, the Supreme Court also overruled the case that had allowed the World War II internments as constitutional.Credit...Bettmann Archive. WASHINGTON — In the annals of Supreme Court history, a 1944 decision upholding the forcible internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II has long stood out as a stain that is almost universally recognized as a shameful mistake. Yet that notorious precedent, Korematsu v. United States, remained law because no case gave justices a good opportunity to overrule it. But on Tuesday, when the Supreme Court’s conservative majority upheld President Trump’s ban on travel into the United States by citizens of several predominantly Muslim countries, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. also seized the moment to finally overrule Korematsu. “The forcible relocation of U.S. citizens to concentration camps, solely and explicitly on the basis of race, is objectively unlawful and outside the scope of presidential authority,” he wrote. Citing language used by then-Justice Robert H. Jackson in a dissent to the 1944 ruling, Chief Justice Roberts added, “Korematsu was gravely wrong the day it was decided, has been overruled in the court of history, and — to be clear — ‘has no place in law under the Constitution.’” In a dissent of the travel ban ruling, Justice Sonia Sotomayor offered tepid applause. While the “formal repudiation of a shameful precedent is laudable and long overdue,” she said, it failed to make the court’s decision to uphold the travel ban acceptable or right. She accused the Justice Department and the court’s majority of adopting troubling parallels between the two cases. In both cases, she wrote, the court deferred to the Trump administration’s invocation of “an ill-defined national security threat to justify an exclusionary policy of sweeping proportion,” relying on stereotypes about a particular group amid “strong evidence that impermissible hostility and animus motivated the government’s policy.” The fallacies in Korematsu were echoed in the travel ban ruling, warned Hiroshi Motomura, a University of California, Los Angeles, law professor who has written extensively about immigration. “Overruling Korematsu the way the court did in this case reduces the overruling to symbolism that is so bare that it is deeply troubling, given the parts of the reasoning behind Korematsu that live on in today’s decision: a willingness to paint with a broad brush by nationality, race or religion by claiming national security grounds,” he said. He added, “If the majority really wanted to bury Korematsu, they would have struck down the travel ban.” The Korematsu ruling, an exceedingly rare modern example in which the court explicitly upheld government discrimination against an entire category of people based upon a trait like race or ethnicity, traced back to the early days after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and the United States entered World War II.
27. The Normalizing of Mass Shootings

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2018 Family Separation https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/how-trumps-family-separation-policy-has-become-what-it-is-today
There is no current law that mandates the separation of families at the U.S. border.
But since the Trump administration rolled out its so-called “zero-tolerance” policy last month, separation of parents from their children has become a more routine part of the process.
Here’s why. Critical to this change is the administration’s decision to call for the criminal prosecution of all adults who illegally cross into the United States. According to existing U.S. immigration enforcement procedure, when a parent is referred for prosecution, the adult is sent to a federal jail and any children are placed in the care of an adult sponsor or, if no close family member or other adult is available to sponsor the child, to a shelter.
Former President Barack Obama also faced criticism for his administration’s use of family detention centers, especially amid the 2014 surge of Central American migrants arriving at the border, often fleeing violence in their home countries.
The federal government has released some preliminary data on family separation in the weeks following the Trump administration’s new policy but the full impact on families at the border is not immediately clear. (More on this data below.)
What follows is a timeline that details how the Trump administration came to embrace this policy.
March 2017
Amid a flurry of executive actions that dealt with the border wall, so-called “sanctuary cities,” and a travel ban that targeted Muslim-majority countries, reports start to emerge that the Department of Homeland Security was discussing the possibility of implementing a policy of separating children from their parents at the border. Sources tell Reuters in early March 2017 that the Trump administration’s goal is to deter mothers from bringing their children on the oftentimes perilous journey to the U.S. border. When CNN asks then-DHS Secretary John Kelly about the potential policy days later, he said, “Yes I’m considering, in order to deter more movement along this terribly dangerous network. I am considering exactly that.”
Weeks later, after facing criticism for the comments, the DHS head appears to walk back the statement.
August 2017
The idea of a family-separation proposal never quite went away, a source familiar with the discussions among Department of Homeland Security officials tells The New Yorker. A proposal for family separation keeps coming up in discussions on broader measures targeting illegal border crossings. “It would rear its head again,” the person said.
October 2017
The Trump administration starts to increase prosecutions of illegal entry in October, according to a data analysis by The New York Times. The newspaper also finds that from October 2017 to April 2018, 700 families were separated at the border, including at least 100 children under age 4. This data was not known until the Times published its report months later, on April 20, 2018. A DHS spokesman tells the Times that the agency does not separate families at the border as a means to deter illegal immigration. The statement appears to contradict Kelly’s previous comments in which he said he was considering a family-separation proposal as part of a broader deterrence effort.
Dec. 5, 2017
The Senate votes to confirm Kirstjen Nielsen as the new Department of Homeland Security secretary. Nielsen replaces Kelly, who became President Donald Trump’s chief of staff.
April 8, 2018
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announces in early April that anyone “illegally entering this country will not be rewarded, but will instead be met with the full prosecutorial powers of the Department of Justice.” In a memo, Sessions directs U.S. attorneys offices in southwest states along the border to prosecute all cases flagged for illegal entry, “to the extent practicable.”
May 7, 2018
Following his April directive Sessions announces a “zero-tolerance” policy for illegal entry into the U.S.: “If you cross this border unlawfully, then we will prosecute you. It’s that simple,” he said. According to the policy, any migrant crossing the border beyond the official ports of entry will face criminal prosecution, including asylum seekers with children.
When asked about Sessions’ comment later that day, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders repeatedly told reporters that family separation was happening because of existing laws, “and the president is simply enforcing them.” Again, that’s not true. There’s no law mandating that.
June 15, 2018
During a briefing call today, Homeland Security officials confirmed to reporters that 1,995 children were separated from 1,940 adults at the U.S.-Mexico border from April 19 through May 31. These adults were referred for prosecution after illegally crossing the border.
June 18, 2018
Members of the Trump administration doubled down on the separation of children from their parents at the border after a weekend of growing criticism over the practice. Homeland Security’s Nielsen said officials will not offer an apology for enforcing the country’s immigration laws.
Attorney General Sessions said if officials didn’t enforce the laws, they would “encourage hundreds of thousands of people year to likewise ignore our laws and illegally enter our country.” Trump said this was “very strongly the Democrats’ fault.” All three have pointed to a law that mandates family separation, but no such law exists.
June 20, 2018
Trump signed an executive order that aims to end the separation of children from their parents when they’re detained for trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. The day before, House Republicans introduced proposals with a similar goal, but Democrats wouldn’t support it, saying Trump could end family separation through executive order.
The order says the government will detain migrant families together throughout “criminal proceedings for improper entry or any removal or other immigration proceedings.” But Trump added that the executive order would not end his administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy of prosecuting immigrants for crossing the border illegally.

Along with addressing family separation, the order directs the Secretary of Defense to make existing military facilities available to house migrant families if necessary.
The order also asks Attorney General Sessions to file a formal request to modify the “Flores agreement,” which set standards on how minors are treated while in federal custody. The DOJ has yet to make this request. Members of the Trump administration has falsely claimed that the Flores agreement, which stems from a 1980s case over the mistreatment of unaccompanied minors, forced them to separate families at the border.
June 26, 2018
The Democratic attorneys general in 17 states, including New York, California and Virginia, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, saying that their family separation policy is a “cruel and unlawful” practice. The lawsuit, filed with the U.S. District Court in Seattle, is believed to be the first legal challenge over Trump’s policy.
In a separate legal action, immigrant advocates requested that a federal judge in Los Angeles order the release of parents separated from their children at the border. The Justice Department did not respond to either legal action.

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