Free Republic

A New York state lawmaker has introduced a bill that would allow the government to detain people that they deemed to be a potential public health risk. While the law does not specifically mention coronavirus, it comes amid increasing concerns that the Covid-19 crisis could be used to usher in authoritarianism. RT reports: Authored by a Democratic member of the New York State Assembly N. Nick Perry, Bill A416 calls for the “removal and/or detention” of individuals who are identified as a “case, contact or carrier” of a contagious disease. Such person or group of persons shall be detained in...

The Trump administration on Monday lost a bid to persuade a federal court to allow long-term detention of migrant families, a significant legal setback to the president’s immigration agenda. In a ruling that countered nearly every argument posed by the Justice Department, Judge Dolly M. Gee of the Federal District Court in Los Angeles held that there was no basis to amend a longstanding consent decree that requires children to be released to licensed care programs within 20 days. The government said that long-term confinement was the only way to avoid separating families when parents were detained on criminal charges....

Fearing a loss of millions of dollars for defying immigration authorities, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez on Thursday ordered county jails to comply with federal immigration detention requests — effectively gutting the county’s position as a “sanctuary” for immigrants in the country illegally. Gimenez cited an executive order signed Wednesday by President Donald Trump that threatened to cut federal grants for any counties or cities that don’t cooperate fully with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Since 2013, Miami-Dade has refused to indefinitely detain inmates who are in the country illegally and wanted by ICE — not based on principle, but because the...

SNIPPET: "The detentions would be temporary."

Occupy LA Sues Over Mass DetentionsA lawsuit was filed by Occupy protesters whose demonstration at City Hall last year was broken up by police By Jason Kandel | Saturday, Dec 22, 2012 | Updated 9:02 PM PST Occupy Los Angeles demonstrators are suing the city for what they said was an unlawful “shock and awe” attack on their civil rights when 1,400 police officers swept nearly 300 demonstrators from City Hall grounds more than a year ago. **SNIP** Five people are suing in a class action lawsuit that represents 292 people detained by officers in the raid. Court documents said...

Iran threatened the United States yesterday with possible legal action for detaining five of its officials for up to 30 months in Iraq. The five Iranians were given a hero's welcome home after their release last week, waving and smiling as they stepped from their plane at Tehran's Mehrabad airport to be met by their families. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, who was also there to greet them, denounced their detention as "inhumane". The capture of the Iran-ians, some of whom US forces accused of arming Shiite Muslim militias at the height of Iraq's sectarian war, stoked tension between Tehran and...

Reports suggest that President Bush's top advisers are again wrestling with whether to close the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. There is no doubt that holding captured al Qaeda and Taliban fighters at that facility has become a significant diplomatic liability. But the potential foreign policy benefits of moving war on terror prisoners must be weighed against the very real strategic, tactical and legal costs that this decision would entail. After looking at these, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that maintaining the Guantanamo Bay facility is not only justifiable but necessary.

Fear, persecution, prejudice, families divided. This is the reality of thousands of immigrants - legal or not - who left behind country, culture and friends to search for the American Dream. But more and more Americans are repelled by the harsh tactics being used against them - and are raising their voices. "A lot of children have been brutally separated from their families," said the Rev. Dr. Donna Schaper, the senior minister of Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village. "This is un-American; family values don't stop at the Rio Grande." She is one of the founders of the New Sanctuary...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United States raised the plight of Myanmar's detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and 1,300 other political prisoners on Friday, but Russia and China blocked U.N. Security Council discussion of actions by the country's ruling military junta. Deputy U.S. Ambassador Gerald Scott said the Bush administration felt it was important to remind the international community that the situation continues to decline. When Scott raised the issue, diplomats said several nations echoed U.S. concerns but Russia and China objected to putting Myanmar on the council's agenda. Unless an issue is on the council's agenda, it...

WASHINGTON, July 20 A report by internal investigators at the Justice Department has identified dozens of recent cases in which department employees have been accused of serious civil rights and civil liberties violations involving enforcement of the sweeping federal antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act. The inspector general's report, which was presented to Congress last week and is awaiting public release, is likely to raise new concern among lawmakers about whether the Justice Department can police itself when its employees are accused of violating the rights of Muslim and Arab immigrants and others swept up in terrorism investigations...

hen we look back at how our country has handled the last year, we have much to be hugely proud of — and, perhaps, one thing to be just a bit embarrassed about. That's the way some people's civil liberties have been steamrolled since 9/11. I fear we'll look back on this with a hint of shame, much as we recall the abuse of "Reds" after the Bolshevik Revolution and of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Still, arguments of some liberals and civil libertarians strike me as overdrawn. Since this is a time to seek lessons, let's reflect on a...