Deportation of U.S. Teen to Colombia Latest Failure of Immigration System

Jakadrien Turner was deported to Colombia, eventhough she is a U.S. citizen and speaks no Spanish.

The family of a Dallas teenager Jakadrien Turner is demanding answers after she was deported to Colombia, despite the fact that she is a U.S. citizen and speaks no Spanish. Turner, a 15-year-old African-American runaway, was living in Houston when she was arrested for shoplifting and gave police a fake name that belonged to a 22-year-old undocumented immigrant from Colombia with warrants for her arrest. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) reportedly discovered Turner’s fingerprints did not match those of the Colombian national’s, but deported her anyway. "The country has no idea that we have got a rogue police force. That rogue police force is called ICE," says Ralph Isenberg, a Dallas businessman who has become an advocate for immigrants. "I’m hoping that Black America — who have a history of understanding the destruction of our families, because of what slavery has done to our families — will at some point wake up and understand that the problem of immigrants is something we can not ignore," adds Dallas Reverend Peter Johnson, a longtime civil rights advocate who has worked with the Turner family. Jacqueline Stevens, a political science professor at Northwestern University recently published an exhaustive report on U.S. citizens who have been detained and deported. She says that this deportation is only the latest exampled of a failed immigration system.


Gingrich Singles Out Blacks For Receiving Food Stamps Just days after Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum singled out African Americans on entitlement reform, Newt Gingrich singled out African Americans for receiving food stamps -- despite the fact that blacks make up less than one third of recipients in the food stamp program.

Gingrich made the remarks during an appearance in New Hampshire, when speaking about a theoretical invitation to speak to the NAACP.

"I'm prepared, if the NAACP invites me, I'll go to their convention and talk about why the African American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps," Gingrich said.

The former House speaker has made a habit of calling President Obama the "food stamp president." The use of food stamps in America has continued to climb in recent years, and hit an all-time high of nearly 45 million in 2011 According to U.S. Census Bureau, about 28 percent of households that receive food stamps are African American, while 59 percent are white. According to the same report, about 78 percent of American households are white, while about 12 percent are black. (The overall population is 72.4 percent white and 12.6 percent black.)

Gingrich is hoping to revive his campaign following a fourth-place finish in Iowa. (Mitt Romney edged out Rick Santorum to take the Iowa race.) On Thursday, Gingrich also criticized Obama’s recess appointments of three new members for the National Labor Relations Board in defiance of Republican opposition. Gingrich called for de-funding the board entirely.


Texas Prisoner Freed Over Withheld Evidence After 31 Years
A Texas prisoner who served 31 years behind bars for rape has been released after a judge ruled prosecutors withheld evidence that could have led to his acquittal. Rickey Wyatt, a 56-year-old African American, was sentenced to 99 years in prison for a sexual assault in 1980. He had gone to trial after rejecting a plea-bargain for a five-year sentence. At the time, Dallas police withheld evidence that the victim in the assault had told them Wyatt was far too small to have been her attacker. The victim had also described the attacker as clean-shaven, whereas Wyatt consistently had facial hair at the time.


Delaware Death Row Prisoner Set for Release After Conviction Overturned
A death row prisoner in Delaware is on the verge of being released after two decades behind bars. Jermaine Wright, who is African American, was sentenced to death for the 1991 slaying of liquor store clerk Phillip Seifert. But this week, Superior Court Judge John A. Parkins, Jr., overturned the conviction, calling the case against Wright "weak to non-existent," with no physical evidence, no murder weapon, no witnesses able to identify Wright from a lineup, and key evidence withheld from his defense. Wright confessed to the murder in a videotaped interrogation but was apparently high on heroin at the time.


Military Trial Begins for Marine in Haditha Massacre
A military trial is about to begin for the last of the U.S. marines charged in the massacre of 24 Iraqi civilians in the Iraqi village of Haditha in November 2005. The victims, including women and children, were killed when the marines burst into their homes and shot them dead in their nightclothes. The marines’ squadron leader, Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, will be tried on manslaughter charges in a military courtroom at Camp Pendleton near San Diego. Jury selection begins today, and opening arguments are expected on Friday. Wuterich is the last defendant to face charges for the Haditha killings. Six other marines have had their charges dropped or dismissed, while another soldier was acquitted.


Obama Uses Recess Appointments to Sidestep GOP on Consumer Protection, Labor Board
President Obama has used a recess appointment to install former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray as the first head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Senate Republicans had refused to confirm Cordray since Obama nominated him earlier this year. Announcing his move in Ohio, Obama said he would defy Republican attempts to obstruct the agency’s work.

President Obama: "The only reason Republicans in the Senate have blocked Richard is because they don’t agree with the law that set up a consumer watchdog in the first place. They want to weaken the law. They want to water it down... The financial firms have armies of lobbyists in Washington looking out for their interests. You need somebody looking out for your interest and fighting for you, and that’s Richard Cordray."

The bureau was created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial oversight law, enacted in response to the financial crisis. Republicans are threatening to sue the White House over the recess appointment, contending that the Senate is still technically in session. President Obama has also made recess appointments to fill three vacant positions on the National Labor Relations Board, avoiding a suspension of the board’s operations. The NLRB had faced the prospect of shutting down this month with one board member’s term expiring and Republicans refusing to confirm two Obama nominees, thereby leaving the board without quorum. But on Tuesday, Obama tapped Democrats Sharon Block and Richard Griffin and Republican Terence Flynn to fill the vacant seats. In a statement, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce denounced the move, saying it will "further poison the well with regard to labor-management issues pending in front of the board and on Capitol Hill." Labor leaders meanwhile have praised the recess appointments. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said, "We commend the President for exercising his constitutional authority to ensure that crucially important agencies protecting workers and consumers are not shut down by Republican obstructionism."


Global Revolution, Live Streamers of Occupy Wall Street, Arrested in NYPD Raid
Members of a key group responsible for broadcasting Occupy Wall Street actions around the world have been arrested in a New York City Police Department raid. On Tuesday, six people with the Global Revolution live stream were detained at their Brooklyn studio following an eviction notice by police. The six were charged with trespassing, obstructing governmental administration and resisting arrest. Global Revolution has covered Occupy Wall Street’s actions and day-to-day activities since the movement began in September.


Citizens United Backlash Grows from Cali. to NYC Urging Congress to Overturn Corporate Personhood
Adding to a growing nationwide backlash against the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, California lawmakers have introduced a resolution that calls on Congress to "propose and send to the states for ratification a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United." The New York City Council has just passed a similar resolution, echoing measures passed in Los Angeles, Oakland, Albany and Boulder. We speak to Public Citizen President Robert Weissman; California Assemblymember Bob Wieckowski, who introduced the state’s Citizens United resolution; and New York City Council Member and measure co-sponsor Melissa Mark-Viverito. "I think it taps into the sentiment that we’re seeing around the country growing, regarding Occupy Wall Street, where people really feel that government is disconnected from the vast majority of the population, and because of this influence that corporate interests have," Mark-Viverito says.


Ecuadorian Court Upholds Chevron Fine for Amazon Pollution In Ecuador, a court has upheld a ruling ordering the oil giant Chevron to pay $18 billion for polluting Ecuador’s rain forest since the 1970s. Amazonian residents won the judgment last year after a long-running case seeking damages for Chevron’s dumping of billions of gallons of toxic oil waste. The initial ruling called on Chevron to pay $8.6 billion, but then rose to more than double that amount after Chevron failed to apologize. In a statement, Chevron called the new ruling "illegitimate" and "[un]enforceable in any court that observes the rule of law." Chevron has filed challenges in international and U.S. courts to block the ruling from being enforced. Meanwhile, a group representing the plaintiffs, the Amazon Defense Coalition, said: "The decision is based on overwhelming scientific evidence presented at trial that proved Chevron deliberately dumped billions of gallons of toxic waste that poisoned the water supply of the Amazon rainforest, decimating indigenous groups and causing an outbreak of cancers and other diseases that continue to threaten thousands of innocent lives. Chevron now has an opportunity to show the world…that it respects the laws and courts of other countries."

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