BC SOCIETY
Saved by @Alex1Powell

🚨 The June "Death to Asylum" regulation has been finalized. It is set to go into effect on Monday, January 11, just nine days before inauguration.

https://t.co/tQGwoRrjjW

 Under this new rule, one of Trump's last parting body blows to the United States' system of humanitarian protection, none but the lucky few will be able to win asylum.

The regulation creates near-total bans on asylum for wide swathes of people and herculean procedural barriers.
Before I get into just how horrific this new anti-asylum regulation is, a picture of Petra I took this morning to soften the blow of what is a terrible thing to read through—even though the Biden administration will be working to end it ASAP and court challenges are certain.
Back to the new regulation, which I wrote about in June when it was first proposed.

Today, the Trump administration says that they have "generally adopt[ed] the [Notice of Proposed Rulemaking] with few substantive changes." Meaning it's just as bad. https://t.co/EhWm9MwzFe
The Trump administration's anti-refugee policies show right at the start.

To them, refugee protections are first about "protecting [our] own resources and citizens" and only secondarily about protecting people from persecution.

That's what led us to turn away Jews in the 1930s.
Despite over 80,000 comments in response to this rule, the overwhelming majority of which were in opposition to the rule, the Trump administration only made FIVE substantive changes.

It's clear that they never intended to respond to comments—and that'll doom them in court.
Before I go through those five substantive changes, I encourage people to check out my thread from June analyzing the proposed regulation.

It goes over in excruciating detail just some of the terrible changes—almost all of which have now been adopted. https://t.co/Wg31fcb0uZ
Okay, the 5 changes.

First, DHS/DOJ have partially walked back their original proposal to utterly ban new Particular Social Groups in motions to reopen if not presented early on, even when it was ineffective of counsel.

Old language: New language:
Second, DHS/DOJ have also partially walked back a proposal to ban claims of persecution on the basis of death threats without an attempt (i.e. even if someone said "I'm going to kill you tomorrow" that wouldn't have been enough).

Old: New:
Third, DHS/DOJ have decided to graciously agree that illegal entry by CHILDREN shouldn't be a "significant adverse discretionary factor" in asylum... but kept in place penalties against CHILDREN for:

- not applying for asylum in a third country; or
- using fraudulent documents
Fourth, DHS/DOJ have clarified some incredibly confusing language about when a brand new (and absolutely ridiculous) definition of a "frivolous" asylum application goes into place.
And the fifth and last "substantive change"... is to make the rule even worse by eliminating a requirement that people whose applications are at risk of being deemed frivolous be given a chance to respond to concerns and argue why their case isn't frivolous.

Truly despicable.
There were over 80,000 comments in opposition to this rule. @immcouncil and tons of other orgs submitted extensive comments identifying hundreds of problems with the rules... and DHS/EOIR made just 5 substantive changes (one making things worse) and 13 non-substantive changes.
In the response to the comments, DHS/EOIR puts into footnotes that the regulation will not apply to pending applications, but at NO point in the actual text of the regulation (the part judges apply) is that written.

There will absolutely be extensive confusion over this point.
On the point of whether these rules apply to pending cases, compare the frivolousness bar—which is very explicit that it only applies to new applications—to the general language around the new definitions of asylum law.

Why should we trust DHS/EOIR's footnotes on pending cases?
DHS/EOIR are keeping in place a provision that would place every person who passes a credible fear interview at the border into "asylum-and-withholding-only proceedings."

Under a separate rule—also coming soon—they'd get just 15 days to file for asylum!

https://t.co/Ev7x0sxEUB
The entire regulation is a disaster procedurally and legally. It is blatantly unlawful in multiple locations because it flies in the face of decades of precedent on asylum.

Just on those grounds alone, a court is likely to strike down the rule as unlawful. But there's more!
The rule is also a procedural disaster. DHS/EOIR offers conclusory and insufficient responses to almost all concerns raised in the comments, despite being required to do more.

As a result, the rule will likely be blocked on Administrative Procedure Act grounds. But there's more!
The DHS part of the rule is also vulnerable because as commenters raised (and multiple federal courts have already with them), Chad Wolf is not lawfully serving as DHS Secretary.

Since Wolf doesn't have the authority to promulgate this rule, the DHS rule is totally void.
So, to sum up: this is a terrifyingly awful attack on asylum that would threaten the very foundations of the United States' promises to protect the vulnerable—but like so many Trump policies, it was done so sloppily and unlawfully that it probably won't survive in court.
One of the very first things the Biden administration should do on taking office is to declared they will not defend the rule in court, and at the same time begin the process of formally eliminating the rule and replacing it with something much better that preserves asylum.
To give an example of what I mean by "conclusory and insufficient responses" to comments, check out this one, which can only be boiled down to "nuh-uh."
Another example of total failure to engage with comments?

DHS/EOIR says people are wrong that the rules create blanket bans on certain kinds of claims because they don't "categorically rule out types of claims."

In other words, it's not a ban if 1 in 1,000 can still win. 🙄

More from Aaron Reichlin-Melnick

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick
@ReichlinMelnick
A comprehensive new @HouseJudiciary report on family separation puts to bed any suggestion that the Trump administration intended to reunite families.

One damning new revelation? Former CBP head Kevin McAleenan tried to keep separations going after a court ordered them to stop. https://t.co/ORVnsA6fKi
POLITICS
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick
@ReichlinMelnick
There is a LOT to like about this bill. I want to highlight some of the proposed changes beyond just legalization, including:

- Ending the 3 & 10 year bars
- Curbing the "Muslim ban" authority
- Preventing "aging out" of children on nonimmigrant

Today's press release says the new bill will revoke the 1996 immigration bill's creation of 3 and 10 year bars to getting a visa for those who have been present unlawfully in the US for 6 months or over a year.

Here's @immcouncil's fact sheet on the bars:

The new bill has multiple provisions designed to reduce the current green card backlogs, which for nationals of some countries like India, China, Mexico, and the Philippines, can mean the process of obtaining a green card can take 20+ years (or even longer in some cases).


The bill would also create similar reforms for the employment-based immigration system, where backlogs are even worse. Under the current system, some Indian nationals seeking a green card are predicted to have a 100+ year wait for a visa! The new bill would do a lot to fix that.


This particular provision would be a welcome change for thousands of people who grow up in the United States as a "derivative" on their parents' nonimmigrant work visas.

Under current laws, they have to leave the US when they turn 21 (if they can't get another visa).
GOVERNMENT
Advertisement
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick
@ReichlinMelnick
We finally have the U.S. Citizenship Act Bill Text! I'm going to go through some portions of the bill right now and highlight some of the major changes and improvements that it would make to our immigration system.

Thread:


First the Bill makes a series of promises changes to the way we talk about immigrants and immigration law.

Gone would be the term "alien" and in its place is "noncitizen."

Also gone would be the term "alienage," replaced with "noncitizenship."


Now we get to the "earned path to citizenship" for all undocumented immigrants present in the United States on January 1, 2021.

Under this bill, anyone who satisfies the eligibility criteria for a new "lawful prospective immigrant status" can come out of the shadows.


So, what are the eligibility criteria for becoming a "lawful prospective immigrant status"? Those are in a new INA 245G and include:

- Payment of the appropriate fees
- Continuous presence after January 1, 2021
- Not having certain criminal record (but there's a waiver)


After a person has been in "lawful prospective immigrant status" for at least 5 years, they can apply for a green card, so long as they still pass background checks and have paid back any taxes they are required to do so by law.

However! Some groups don't have to wait 5 years.
SOCIETY , IMMIGRATION
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick
@ReichlinMelnick
Just jumped into listening to the Tipton status hearing in the Texas case and the Texas AG just said something wildly incorrect, that all 14,000 people held in ICE detention would be released—but that's just completely wrong. It only applies to those with final orders!

Tipton, admitting his lack of knowledge on immigration law, asks a series of questions about detention that suggests he completely buys into Texas's argument that anyone with a criminal record is per se dangerous. But they served their time! If they were a citizen they'd be out.

Kirschner pushing back on Tipton and the AG's focus on detention, making clear that the case is about "removal," not detention. He asks Tipton to lay out his questions fully so they can answer them.

Texas's AG office completely botches Zadvydas, claiming that if removable is not foreseeable the government has no authority to detain them.

That is simply false (DHS can always continue to detain on public safety grounds), and @CodyWofsy jumps in to correct that issue.

Pushing back, @CodyWofsy makes clear that "as a practical matter, people who have final removal orders are often detained for years," including in circumstances where there are practical issues with their removal (diplomatic issues, e.g.) and Texas's claim was just wrong.
SOCIETY
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick
@ReichlinMelnick
Sitting down to work for the first day of the Biden presidency is a surreal feeling.

So much happened yesterday. I'm going to collect my threads here on yesterday's big immigration news.

First, we got key details of Biden's big immigration


Once Biden had officially taken office, we got the first major action. As part of a standard transition process, the Biden White House froze all regulations which Trump had been trying to finalize at the last hour. I did a thread on what we


Last night we started getting more changes. One of the first was an order telling CBP to stop putting people into the so-called "Migrant Protection Protocols," a cruel program that's left thousands in a dangerous limbo. But there's still more to do!


After that, we began getting the text of immigration executive orders. The first one put onto the White House's website was the order ending the Muslim Ban/Africa Ban and ordering the State Department to come up with a plan for reconsidering


The next immigration executive order put on the White House's website revoked a Trump executive order from January 26, 2017 which made all undocumented immigrants a priority for deportation and directed a DHS-wide review of immigration
BIDEN

More from Society

Bimbo Olagunju
Bimbo Olagunju
@CallMeAbimbola
Offered a guy a ride from Yaba to Obalende this morning. Just as we're approaching Alagomeji, uncle asked me if he can drive. Said he's not comfortable being driven by a woman. I parked and told him to come and take the wheel. Once he got down, I just zoomed off. Arrant nonsense

Funny thing is the guy is quite young. He can't be more than 25. How can someone that young have this sort of mentality?

I actually did not think that the guy could have wanted to get away with my car at the time. Now that I think of it though, that's a big possibility. We need to be careful out there. These thieves now have different ways of operating
SOCIETY
John Hayward
John Hayward
@Doc_0
Our pretensions to civilization have become very thin. Political violence was legitimized last year and is spreading wildly now. "Might makes right" is clearly the only "principle" behind freedom of speech. That's why Chinese Communists will never be censored by Big Tech.

When every "principle" becomes nothing but a ruthless exercise of power, it's not surprising that a growing number of people conclude they must demonstrate some sort of power in order to be taken seriously. Violence is the crudest exercise of power.

A well-run civilization makes it clear *universally* that violence is absolutely unacceptable. Giving free passes for irresponsible rhetoric and destruction to groups favored by the dominant political ideology of the State undermines that message.

We must also people peaceable means of expressing themselves and controlling their own lives, to relieve the pressures that can lead to violent outbursts and other forms of lawlessness. The less healthy discourse and freedom of action you have, the more pressure builds up.

It's dangerous when large numbers of people begin drawing the conclusion that might makes right, that laws and principles bend easily for those who have the political strength to bend them. Might makes right is the code of anarchy and barbarism, the antithesis of civilization.
POLITICS , SOCIETY , ALL
Advertisement
John Hayward
John Hayward
@Doc_0
It's funny how so many people who claim to worship "democracy" also dismiss nationalism as selfish xenophobia. Democracy is absolutely meaningless without strong national sovereignty. Under globalism, citizens of any given state have little influence over how they are governed.

Nationalism isn't just mindless tribalism. People are correct to insist their government has a responsibility TO THEM that vastly outweighs any imagined responsibility to foreign governments they have absolutely no influence over, or foreign populations.

We've seen that point taken to absurd extremes by the Left during the Trump administration, with whack-job judges ruling that foreigners have rights that EXCEED those of American citizens, including absolute rights to enter the U.S. and influence its government.

And we're frequently told that some international elite "consensus" completely overrides our ability to make individual decisions - or even to petition our own government, or vote for representatives who disagree with whatever "the world" has supposedly decided.

All of that is the absolute negation of "democracy" in any form, including the dangerous mob rule and majoritarianism that the Left selectively advocates. (Notice they always have a list of things nobody gets to vote on anymore, no matter how strong the majority vote would be.)
SOCIETY
John Hayward
John Hayward
@Doc_0
Every crisis becomes a religion if it lasts long enough.

One factor in that transformation is the Beautiful Theory phenomenon: the power elite insists its remedies are logical and politically correct so they MUST work, even if the actual evidence shows they obviously don't.
SOCIETY
Derik Chica
Derik Chica
@DerikChica
Yesterday I refused unsafe work. This is how it went.

#onted #onpoli #osstf

1st, to the haters. Since when is it "normal" to go to work scared for your health, your life, and your family's lives? It is our right not be scared at work and our employer (in my case, the gov) needs to put measures in place so we aren't afraid. That is law, not just words.

There were 2 steps to the refusal. Refusing to work to my employer, and refusing to work to the Ministry. If my concerns were addressed in Step 1 - to my employer, there is not need to go to the Ministry. We went to the Ministry.

Involved in my refusal were my administration team, a Health and Safety Inspector from my employer, a Health and Safety Inspector from my union, and later in Step 2, a Ministry of Labour Inspector.

I first stated my specific concerns to my adm. They were so supportive in doing everything in their power to address my concerns. I want to thank them for that. They took my concerns seriously. My concerns were all tied to the increased contagiousness of the new variants:
SOCIETY

You May Also Like

UN Watch
UN Watch
@UNWatch
The UN just voted to condemn Israel 9 times, and the rest of the world 0.

View the resolutions and voting results here:

The resolution titled "The occupied Syrian Golan," which condemns Israel for "repressive measures" against Syrian citizens in the Golan Heights, was adopted by a vote of 151 - 2 - 14.

Israel and the U.S. voted 'No' https://t.co/HoO7oz0dwr


The resolution titled "Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people..." was adopted by a vote of 153 - 6 - 9.

Australia, Canada, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and the U.S. voted 'No' https://t.co/1Ntpi7Vqab


The resolution titled "Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan" was adopted by a vote of 153 – 5 – 10.

Canada, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and the U.S. voted 'No'
https://t.co/REumYgyRuF


The resolution titled "Applicability of the Geneva Convention... to the
Occupied Palestinian Territory..." was adopted by a vote of 154 - 5 - 8.

Canada, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and the U.S. voted 'No'
https://t.co/xDAeS9K1kW
SOCIETY
Steve Stewart-Williams
Steve Stewart-Williams
@SteveStuWill
THREAD: 12 Things Everyone Should Know About IQ

1. IQ is one of the most heritable psychological traits – that is, individual differences in IQ are strongly associated with individual differences in genes (at least in fairly typical modern environments). https://t.co/3XxzW9bxLE


2. The heritability of IQ *increases* from childhood to adulthood. Meanwhile, the effect of the shared environment largely fades away. In other words, when it comes to IQ, nature becomes more important as we get older, nurture less. https://t.co/UqtS1lpw3n


3. IQ scores have been increasing for the last century or so, a phenomenon known as the Flynn effect. https://t.co/sCZvCst3hw (N ≈ 4 million)

(Note that the Flynn effect shows that IQ isn't 100% genetic; it doesn't show that it's 100% environmental.)


4. IQ predicts many important real world outcomes.

For example, though far from perfect, IQ is the single-best predictor of job performance we have – much better than Emotional Intelligence, the Big Five, Grit, etc. https://t.co/rKUgKDAAVx https://t.co/DWbVI8QSU3


5. Higher IQ is associated with a lower risk of death from most causes, including cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, most forms of cancer, homicide, suicide, and accident. https://t.co/PJjGNyeQRA (N = 728,160)
LIFE
Advertisement
XVIII Airborne Corps\U0001f409
XVIII Airborne Corps🐉...
@18airbornecorps
1 of 16: WE ARE ALL JEWS HERE: THE STORY OF RODDIE EDMONDS

One of the most moving and relevant stories of the Battle of the Bulge, or any American Soldier in any war, is that of Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds, a Knoxville, Tennessee native, who served with the 106th Infantry.


2 of 16:

Roddie was captured early on in the Battle of the Bulge, on December 19th, when Panzer forces plowed through his unit.

He, along with almost his entire regiment, was forced to surrender.


3 of 16:

The men were transported to the Stalag IX-A POW camp in Ziegenhain, Germany.

Roddie was the senior enlisted American Soldier at the site. As such, he was the conduit between all American Soldiers and their German captors.


4 of 16:

In late January, the camp’s commandant, Major Siegmann [pictured here], ordered Roddie, a Christian, to identify all Jewish Soldiers and order them to stand in formation by themselves the next day.

[Jewish Soldiers were a minority within American units]


5 of 16:

Throughout WWII, captured Jewish Soldiers were often tortured and then killed by their German captors.

In fact, Jewish Soldiers had been told to bury their dog tags before capture. The dog tag identified Jews with the letter “H” for Hebrew.
SOCIETY
The Chartians
The Chartians
@chartians
Took me 5 years to get the best Chartink scanners for Stock Market, but you’ll get it in 5 mminutes here ⏰

Do Share the above tweet 👆

These are going to be very simple yet effective pure price action based scanners, no fancy indicators nothing - hope you liked it.

https://t.co/JU0MJIbpRV

52 Week High
One of the classic scanners very you will get strong stocks to Bet on.

https://t.co/V69th0jwBr

Hourly Breakout
This scanner will give you short term bet breakouts like hourly or 2Hr breakout

Volume shocker
Volume spurt in a stock with massive X times
SCREENERS , ALL , CHARTLINK SCREENERS
Simon DeDeo
Simon DeDeo
@SimonDeDeo
This is a pretty valiant attempt to defend the "Feminist Glaciology" article, which says conventional wisdom is wrong, and this is a solid piece of scholarship. I'll beg to differ, because I think Jeffery, here, is confusing scholarship with "saying things that seem right".


The article is, at heart, deeply weird, even essentialist. Here, for example, is the claim that proposing climate engineering is a "man" thing. Also a "man" thing: attempting to get distance from a topic, approaching it in a disinterested fashion.


Also a "man" thing—physical courage. (I guess, not quite: physical courage "co-constitutes" masculinist glaciology along with nationalism and colonialism.)


There's criticism of a New York Times article that talks about glaciology adventures, which makes a similar point.


At the heart of this chunk is the claim that glaciology excludes women because of a narrative of scientific objectivity and physical adventure. This is a strong claim! It's not enough to say, hey, sure, sounds good. Is it true?
ALL