Mayor Rahm Emanuel stopped by “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” Monday night to declare Chicago a “Trump-free zone.”
It was Emanuel’s first appearance on the show since Colbert took over for David Letterman in 2015, and he took the opportunity to escalate his criticisms of President Donald Trump, particularly when it comes to immigration policy.
“Our motto: A city he’ll never sleep in. We don’t want him,” Emanuel said to kick off his segment.
Colbert questioned the enforcement of that rule, particularly with “a Trump hotel right on the river there,” to which the mayor touted his record of opposing the Trump administration.
Emanuel mentioned free community college for students, including so-called DREAMers, who maintain at least a B average in high school, suing the Environmental Protection Agency over U.S. Steel dumping in Lake Michigan, as well as the recent adoption of climate change policies by mayors from around the world at a summit in Chicago.
“Look, Donald Trump is driving forward looking through the rearview mirror and I’m not going that way because I want my city going that way,” he said, gesturing forward, “and I want it to be a Trump-free zone.”
These Peaceful Guys Are Welcome Because They Are On Their Way To College.
“He really, never really likes it when I do that though,” Emanuel added.
Colbert then questioned Chicago’s status as a “sanctuary city,” a term used for jurisdictions that do not detain undocumented immigrants arrested on charges unrelated to their immigration status and turn them over to federal authorities for possible deportation.
“How is that not sort of a constitutional crisis?” Colbert asked.
Emanuel deflected at first, returning to a familiar anecdote about the arrival of his immigrant grandfather in Chicago 100 years ago, proclaiming that the city that welcomed his ancestors and made him mayor is “the greatest city in the greatest country in the world.”
“That doesn’t necessarily answer my question,” Colbert pushed back. “I’m all for what you’re doing, but I’m just curious how it doesn’t violate federal law for you to do this.”
“Because the police department in the city of Chicago is not supposed to be enforcing the immigration laws of the United States government. That’s what the federal government is for,” Emanuel responded, adding that stricter enforcement of immigration laws would counteract his work “building relationships between the police department and communities” – an area that has been the subject of intense scrutiny and structural reform in the wake of high-profile police shootings like that of Laquan McDonald in 2014.
“I’m not driving a wedge – that is what Donald Trump wants, is a wedge on the philosophy of community policing,” Emanuel told Colbert. “It’s absolutely antithetical to everything we’re trying to do.”
The duo then delved into a rapid-fire question game called “Fast Round” from the mayor’s podcast “Chicago Stories.”
Emanuel chose Cubs over Sox, thick crust over thin, Hancock over Sears, then (begrudgingly) Willis over Sears, lake over river and 16-inch softball over 12 – a Chicago summer tradition that Colbert said “looks like the moon is eclipsing when it comes at you.”
Colbert’s final question for Emanuel centered on Trump’s declaration last week that the U.S. would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, asking why the presidents Emanuel worked for (Obama and Bill Clinton) didn’t do it before him.
“First of all, no Democrat or Republican president would ever do this,” the mayor said, calling it “bad policy.”
“The fact is, for a whole host of reasons, you do not want the United States in the middle of negotiations about a two-state solution,” Emanuel continued. “You know, my father is from Israel, I’ve been to Israel, my son’s been Bar Mitzvahed there. This is not what a president should be doing.”
Emanuel landed one final dig at Trump, saying his “bigger worry is that he’s not also moving the nation’s capital to Alabama and I’m really more concerned about what he’s doing there,” in a reference to the high-stakes, contentious race to fill Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ former Senate seat.
I’m sure Allah told this idiot to blow up infidels right? He was a LONE WOLF I’M SURE!
The terror suspect who allegedly attempted to detonate a suicide-bomb in New York came to the United States from Bangladesh as a “chain migration” relative of an individual who had immigrated earlier into the United States.
In October, President Donald Trump called for an end to this “chain migration” process in his immigration principles.
On Monday 27-year-old Akayed Ullah, a Bangladesh national, injured three individuals when he allegedly tried to detonate a suicide bomb in New York City in a planned terrorist attack.
Ullah, as confirmed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), entered the U.S. in 2011 as a chain migrant.
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Under “chain migration,” new immigrants to the U.S. are allowed to bring an unlimited number of poorly-screened foreign relatives with them, creating a never-ending flow of immigration from some terror-ridden countries.
Ullah came to the U.S. through the F43 visa, allowing him to obtain a Green Card simply because his father’s brother or sister had recently been naturalized as a U.S. citizen. This process is known as “extended-family chain migration.”
Tyler Q. Houlton
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@SpoxDHS
.@DHSgov can confirm that the suspect was admitted to the United States after presenting a passport displaying an F43 family immigrant visa in 2011. The suspect is a Lawful Permanent Resident from Bangladesh who benefited from extended family chain migration.
2:17 PM – Dec 11, 2017
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JUST IN: 27 y/o Terrorist who is from Bangladesh and was living in Brooklyn, told authorities “They’ve been bombing in my country and I wanted to do damage here, Terrorist was also a cab driver.
11:28 AM – Dec 11, 2017
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Trump has repeatedly demanded an end to chain migration, saying “Chain migration is a disaster for this country and it’s horrible.”
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.@POTUS: “Chain migration is a disaster for this country, and it’s horrible.” | Catch the full interview TONIGHT at 10p ET on @FoxNews.
6:30 PM – Nov 2, 2017
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As Breitbart News reported, more than 140,000 Bangladeshi nationals — larger than the population of Dayton, Ohio — have entered the United States since 2005 for no other reason than to reunite with extended family members.
8,508 Bangladeshi nationals entered U.S. in 2005 as chain migrants
9,936 entered in 2006
7,765 entered in 2007
7,795 entered in 2008
12,974 entered in 2009
11,407 entered in 2010
13,136 entered in 2011
13,379 entered in 2012
11,346 entered in 2013
14,170 entered in 2014
13,034 entered in 2015
18,051 entered in 2016
Since 2005, 141,501 Bangladeshi nationals have entered U.S. as chain migrants
This is the second time in three months that a foreign-born suspected terrorist entered the U.S. through an immigration program that Trump has called for the end to.
Another suspected ISIS-inspired New York City terrorist, Uzbek national 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov who is accused of murdering at least eight individuals, entered the U.S. in 2010 by winning one of the 50,000 visas randomly allotted every year under the Diversity Visa Lottery.
The Visa Lottery dolls out 50,000 visas annually to foreign nationals from a multitude of countries. The countries include those with terrorist problems, including Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Yemen, and Uzbekistan.
Trump most recently slammed the visa lottery, saying:
We want a system that is merit-based. They come in on merit, they don’t come in on a lottery system. How about the lottery system? Folks did you see that? That’s the guy in New York City. The lottery system where they put names in a bin… so what they do, I would say but more than just say, they take their worst and they put them in the bin and then when they pick the lottery, they have the real worst in their hands… and we end up getting them.
No more lottery system. We’re going to end that. We’ve already started the process.
We want people coming into our country who love our people, support our economy and embrace our values. It’s time to get our priorities straight.
About 9.3 million foreign nationals have come to the U.S. as chain migrants between 2005 and 2016, Breitbart News reported. In that same time period, a total of 13.06 million foreign nationals have entered the U.S. through the legal immigration system, as every seven out of 10 new arrivals come to the country for nothing other than family reunification.
This makes chain migration the largest driver of immigration to the U.S. — making up more than 70 percent — with every two new arrivals bringing seven foreign relatives with them.
Currently, only one in 15 foreign nationals admitted to the U.S. come to the country based on skills and employment purposes. Though roughly 150,000 employment-based Green Cards are allotted every year, half of those Green Cards actually go to the foreign relatives of employees.
Since 2005, the U.S. admitted 80,252 chain migrants from Iran, despite the nation being listed by the U.S. State Department as a sponsor of terrorism.
Red Cross Demands Branches Remove Crucifixes to Be More Secular
Volunteers have criticised the Red Cross charity after receiving a communication telling them to remove crucifixes from the walls of their branches as the organisation looks to become more secular.
The Belgian branches of the international aid organisation received an email from the Provincial Committee of the Red Cross in Liège to remove all crucifixes. André Rouffart, president of the Red Cross in Verviers, said: “We were asked to respect the principles of the Red Cross”, and not to distinguish between race or religious belief 7sur7 reports.
Mr. Rouffart said there had been pushback from volunteers and other members on the issue but downplayed the issue, saying: “I think it’s a storm in a teacup.”
Several volunteers spoke to Belgian broadcaster RTL and expressed hostility to the move, with one saying: “Let things remain as they are. We used to say ‘Christmas holidays’, now it’s ‘winter holidays’. The Christmas market in Brussels has become the ‘Winter Pleasures’.”
“For a certain part of the population — because of the Muslims — the crosses were removed in the Red Cross houses and, more particularly, in that of Verviers,” the volunteer added.
The order follows the proposed removal of a cross in France which was located above a statue of Saint John Paul II in Ploërmel, Brittany. The move sparked outrage among many and led to the Polish and Hungarian government offering to take the cross.
“Such measures must be regarded as attempts to do away with the continent’s civilisation and culture,” commented Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó.
In Ireland, Catholic priest Father Desmond O’Donnell has called on Christians to abandon the word ‘Christmas’ entirely, saying that the commercialisation of the holiday had replaced the original Christian meaning.
While old Christmas traditions being replaced, others have emerged — including anti-terror barriers wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper and bright red bows in the city of Bochum, Germany, to prevent radical Islamic terror attacks like the Berlin Christmas market massacre of December 2016.
A second transgender student is fighting for locker room access at the same suburban school district where a lengthy and historic battle over transgender rights set national precedence a few years ago.
Eighteen-year-old Nova Maday filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court on Thursday claiming that Palatine-based Township High School District 211 has in the past denied her use of the girls’ locker room during physical education class, hurting her grade as well as her mental health.
More recently, the district allowed the Palatine High School senior to change in facilities matching her gender identity but only if she agreed to dress in an “unspecified private changing area within the locker room,” which the lawsuit says is not required of other students.
District 211 Superintendent Dan Cates, in a prepared statement released later Thursday, said the “allegations in the lawsuit misrepresent the accommodations extended to this student and District 211’s approach to working with and supporting transgender students.”
But the suit contends the district has treated Maday differently than other female students, which it asserts is in violation of the Illinois Human Rights Act.
“I just want to be treated like every other girl in our school,” Maday said in a written statement.
The lawsuit says Maday has presented as female since October 2014, consistently dressing as a girl and using a female name and pronouns.
“Nova’s ability to live as a girl in all aspects of her life has been essential for treating her gender dysphoria,” says the lawsuit, which was filed on the student’s behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois and the Chicago law firm Mandell Menkes LLC. “Before treatment, Nova had severe depression. Since her treatment began, Nova’s depression has improved, her grades have gotten better in all of her classes besides P.E., and she has become more social.”
“Under the District’s policy … Nova must be conspicuously separated from her fellow students and singled out for differential treatment by being required to dress separately from them, either in a separate facility or in a separate area within the locker room,” the lawsuit says. “The District’s actions signal to Nova that she is not really a girl and should feel ashamed of who she is and about her body, in particular.”
The northwest suburban district had made national headlines when another transgender student — identified publicly as Student A — filed a complaint with federal authorities in 2013 seeking access to the girls’ locker room. An investigation by federal education officials found the district violated federal law, the first time a school was found to be in conflict with Title IX based on gender identity.
Administrators agreed to give Student A access to the girls’ locker room while installing privacy walls, but a group of parents who opposed such accommodations then sued the district and federal government in federal court, arguing that this violated the constitutional right to privacy and created a hostile environment for other students. That lawsuit is ongoing.
In response to Maday’s lawsuit, a spokeswoman for that group of parents said students should be separated by biological sex and that an “open-air locker room” is not a solution.
“The student is a biological male, and we separate these students by biology and anatomy for good reason,” said Vicki Wilson of D211 Parents for Privacy. “Schools have a duty to protect the well-being and dignity of all students.”
Maday’s mother had previously asked school officials if accommodations for Student A would apply to Maday as well. A school official told the mother that “the settlement only applied to Student A and would not extend to any other student in the district,” according to the lawsuit.
The superintendent’s statement Thursday, however, said district “has provided caring and responsive supports for transgender students for years, including multiple transgender students who daily use bathrooms and locker rooms of their gender identity in multiple schools.
“Every transgender student in District 211 who has requested use of the locker room of their identified gender has been offered such access, along with other supports within an individual support plan,” the statement said.
“We will vigorously defend and protect compassionate, fair and equitable support for all students, and, at the same time, we continue to defend our supports for transgender students at the federal level,” Cates added.
Despite this, Maday’s lawsuit is asking for the court to order District 211 to allow all students access to facilities matching their gender identity, as well as damages for emotional distress and loss suffered by Maday.
Palatine has become one of the main battlegrounds for transgender rights in schools amid a larger, ongoing fight for access based on gender identity nationwide.
In 2016, a directive from then-President Barack Obama’s administration declared that schools must accommodate transgender students, including allowing access to locker rooms or other facilities based on gender identity. But in February the Trump administration rolled back those protections, saying decisions on access were best made at a local level.
