Connect with us

News

Small Alabama Towns with Haitian Populations Should Take Note of Springfield.

Published

on

Haitian

(VOR News) – Sarah Jacques struggled to adjust to a small Alabama city in the southernmost Haitian Appalachian mountain range from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

The 22-year-old adjusted to quiet after a year. Jacques worked at a car seat manufacturing, founded a Creole-language church, and liked Albertville’s safety after her country’s political unrest.

Jacques said additional hurdles have arisen after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate made false claims about Haitian immigration in Springfield, Ohio, creating crime and “eating pets.”

“People would wave at us, say hello, when I first arrived, but now it’s not the same,” Jacques said in Creole via a translator. “People see you and seem either quiet or scared.” In this hostile context, nonpartisan Alabama religious leaders, law enforcement, and citizens took Springfield’s outcomes as a warning. Little US towns are welcoming Haitians.

Haitian migrants supported President Joe Biden’s 2023 proposal to admit 30,000 Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelans every month for two years and allow work. The Biden administration may let 300,000 Haitians stay until February 2026.

In 2023, Alabama had 2,370 Haitians. As of now, there are unknown numbers in Alabama.

The immigration debate is ancient, says Albertville mayor’s executive assistant Robin Lathan. Immigration has increased for over 30 years. The city doesn’t track Haitian migration, but Lathan said “it seems there has been an increase over the last year, in particular.”

Last year, 34% of Albertville’s 5,800 students learned English as a second language, up from 17% in 2017. An August Facebook post of people getting off a bus to work at a poultry company aroused fears that it was hiring illegal immigrants, weeks before Springfield made national headlines.

The chicken producer told The Associated Press that all its workers may lawfully work in the U.S. At a public meeting, some neighbors asked about the federal program that allows Haitians to work in Alabama legally, while others called for landlords to “cut off the housing” and said the migrants have a “smell to them,” according to audio recordings

These remarks touched Albertville community organizer Unique Dunson, 27. “Every time Albertville gets a new influx of non-white people, there seems to be a problem,” Dunson said.

Dunson community store distributes gifts. With national tensions rising, she put English, Spanish, and Creole “welcome neighbor glad you came” billboards throughout town.

Dunston said the billboards “push back” against migrant hate. John Pierre-Charles said he knew Albertville Haitians only from relatives. Within 14 years, his Creole-language church Eglise Porte Etroite went from seven members in 2010 to 300. He’s adding English, drivers’, and podcast studios to the church for growth.

Pierre-Charles deems the past few months “the worst period” for Albertville’s Haitians.

“I can see some people in Albertville who are really scared right now because they don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Pierre-Charles. Some fear Haiti deportation. People fear not knowing others’ emotions.

After August public meetings, Pierre-Charles wrote to city officials requesting more housing and food to help his growing community adapt economically and culturally.

“That’s what I’m trying to do, to be a bridge,” Pierre-Charles said. He cooperated. Gerilynn Hanson, 54, hosted the first session to answer Albertville residents’ valid migration questions in August. Hanson is going to “focus on the human level.”

In September, Hanson, an electrical contractor and Trump supporter, created a foundation with Pierre-Charles and other Haitian community leaders to address the demand for permanent housing and English language instruction.

“We can look at (Springfield) and become them in a year,” Hanson said of the city’s hate and threats. “We can watch without acting. We could make everyone productive and talkative.”

Even places with less than 0.5% Haitian population have state event issues.

Sylacauga residents question Haitian immigrants in public forum footage. Only 60 Haitian migrants dwell in the 12,000-person town southeast of Birmingham, officials say.

Open Door Baptist Church in Enterprise, Alabama, discussed Enterprise’s growing Haitian community in September. Many cars are parked there. After the accident, Ma-Chis Lower Creek Indian Tribe chairman James Wright sympathized with the Haitians departing but worried migrants would affect Enterprise’s “political culture” and “community values.”

Other guests called Haitian immigration “lawless” and “dangerous.” To calm migratory anxieties, some arrived. Chief Michael Moore says Haitians haven’t increased enterprise crime.

“I think there were quite a few people there that were more concerned about fearmongering than the migrants,” Moore told AP.

Moore said his department encountered Haitian migrants in unlawful dwellings but rectified the issue by engaging them. Since then, his department hasn’t received reliable migrant crime complaints.

Moore said, “I completely understand that some people don’t like what I say because it doesn’t fit their own personal thought process.” “But those are facts.”

SOURCE: AP

SEE ALSO:

Donald Trump and Billionaire Elon Musk Participate in a Campaign Rally for the US Presidential Election.

Homeowners Hit By Hurricane Helene Face The Grim Task Of Rebuilding Without Flood Insurance

Analyzing the US Election: Kamala Harris Versus Donald Trump

Continue Reading

News

Trudeau Called the Greatest Threat to NATO

Published

on

Trudeau, NATO

The deputy chairman of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s Defense and Security Committee has chastised Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for his “arrogance” about NATO defense spending. His policies jeopardize the alliance’s existence.

Trudeau’s policies are the freeloading policies of a failing NATO. “If everyone followed Trudeau’s policies, there would be no NATO,” he remarked.

This year, Canada is set to spend 1.37 percent of its GDP on defense, significantly lower than the two percent objective agreed upon by heads of government in 2014.

Members have decided that 2% should be the minimum as concerns rise about Russia’s ongoing assault on Ukraine.

Trudeau reiterated last week that his government is on a “concrete” track to meet the minimum aim by 2032.

“The world is getting more dangerous, more unstable, which is why we’ve committed to reaching the 2 percent, why we’ve almost doubled our investments in defense over the past years, and will continue to over the coming years,” Mr. Trump stated.

He stated that Canada intends to purchase submarines, increase its funding in NORAD, and improve partnerships with NATO.

Many Americans, particularly those who support President-elect Donald Trump, believe it is still too slow. Turner stated that if countries such as Canada do not step up, there will be consequences for those “who cheat.”

The Republican senator penned an op-ed in Newsweek describing Canada’s prime minister as NATO’s greatest threat.

In the op-ed, he stated that Trudeau’s leadership has been so arrogant that it believes it is beyond the need to recognize that authoritarianism is one of the most serious challenges to democracy.

The only way to preserve democracy is to have a robust defense. Trudeau’s policies have outsourced it.

They’ve freeloaded on American taxpayers. The alliance’s call, which Canada also agreed to, is for everyone to pay their fair share and get above 2%, which Justin Trudeau has failed to meet.

Related:

Trudeau GST Tax Holiday to Cost Taxpayers $6.3 Billion

Trudeau GST Tax Holiday to Cost Taxpayers $6.3 Billion

Continue Reading

News

Facebook Securities Fraud Case Dropped By US Supreme Court

Published

on

Facebook
REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

(VOR News) – On Friday, the United States Supreme Court refrained from issuing a rule on Facebook’s permissibility of shareholders advancing a securities fraud claim.

The litigation alleges that Facebook, a subsidiary of Meta, misled investors about the improper utilization of user data from the social media site.

At their hearing on November 6, the justices denied Facebook’s appeal against a lower court’s ruling that allowed a class action lawsuit initiated by Amalgamated Bank in 2018 to proceed.

On November 6, the Supreme Court stated that the issue should not have been addressed and, therefore, opted not to resolve the fundamental legal question at hand. The intervention ensures that the lower court’s verdict remains in force.

The court issued a one-line order for dismissal without providing a rationale. This month, the Supreme Court addressed two cases concerning the ability of private litigants to hold companies accountable for purported securities fraud. One such instance was the dispute involving Facebook.

The alternative case for chip manufacturer NVIDIA, renowned for its specialization in artificial intelligence, was discussed on November 13th. The Supreme Court rendered a verdict in the NVIDIA case on November 13th.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Facebook claimed that the company had inappropriately withheld information from investors concerning a 2015 data breach involving the British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.

The incident impacted over 30 million Facebook users.

Facebook faced allegations of misleading investors, constituting a violation of the Securities Exchange Act, a federal statute established in 1934 that requires publicly traded companies to disclose the risks they encounter.

In 2018, media claims indicated that Cambridge Analytica had improperly utilized Facebook user data during Donald Trump’s successful 2016 presidential campaign, resulting in a fall in Facebook’s stock market price.

The investors have submitted a claim for unspecified monetary damages to partially offset the value of the stock they previously possessed.

The inquiry at hand was whether the company had contravened the law by declining to disclose details regarding the prior data breach in later business-risk disclosures while characterizing such scenarios as merely hypothetical.

Andy Stone, a representative, expressed his discontent with the Supreme Court’s decision to refrain from clarifying this specific legislative provision.

Stone asserted, “The plaintiff’s allegations are unfounded, and we will persist in our defense as the district court reviews this case.”

Facebook asserted that it was not obligated to disclose that the risk it had previously cautioned about had already materialized, as “a reasonable investor” would interpret risk disclosures as forward-looking statements.

President Joe Biden’s administration expressed its support for shareholders in this instance.

Initially dismissed by United States District Judge Edward Davila, the 9th United States Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reinstated the action.

The decision compelled Facebook to appeal to the Supreme Court.

As Alan Morrison, a law professor at George Washington University, states, the plaintiffs are anticipated to pursue discovery, a process entailing the sharing of information between the litigating parties, following the Supreme Court’s dismissal of the appeal.

Morrison also indicated that Facebook “may refile their motion to dismiss under a slightly altered standard, partially to achieve delay.”

After the Cambridge Analytica data breach, the United States government commenced inquiries into privacy protocols, alongside other lawsuits and a congressional inquiry. In 2019, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) initiated enforcement action against Facebook.

The company ultimately resolved the complaint for $100 million. Consequently, Facebook was obligated to remit a distinct penalty of $5 billion to the Federal Trade Commission of the United States.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, the federal agency overseeing fraudulent activities in the securities sector, has had its authority curtailed by prior Supreme Court rulings.

SEE ALSO:

Pam Bondi has been appointed as US Attorney General following Gaetz’s resignation.

PayPal’s Technical Challenges Are Affecting Thousands Of Customers Globally.

Continue Reading

News

Pam Bondi to Be Appointed US Attorney General

Published

on

Pam Bondi
Photo via Reuters

(VOR News) – President-elect Donald Trump selected Pam Bondi, a former Florida Attorney General and ally, to succeed Matt Gaetz on Thursday after the latter withdrew from consideration.

Gaetz’s drug use and sexual intercourse with a 17-year-old girl were the subject of an investigation by the House Ethics Committee. He denies any wrongdoing.

During Trump’s first administration, Pam Bondi, 59, served on the Opioids and Drug Abuse Commission. He served as police chief of the third-most populous state from 2011 to 2019.

She was also a member of Trump’s defense team at his first impeachment hearing, where he was charged with using military assistance to get Ukraine to look into the wrongdoing of his opponent, now President Joe Biden. The Senate cleared Trump on all charges.

The right-wing America First Policy Institute, which has collaborated with Trump’s campaign to create government concepts, most recently had Pam Bondi as its legal branch leader.

Unlike Pam Bondi, Gaetz lacks the experience necessary to serve as attorney general and will likely encounter resistance from Senate Democrats and some Republicans.

According to Jones Walker defense attorney David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor in Florida, “She is unequivocally qualified for the position on paper.” Throughout her life, she battled in court. Her resume stood out from the previous nominee.

In a tweet announcing his intention to nominate Bondi, Trump praised her skills as a prosecutor and her firm stance against crime as Florida’s first female attorney general. Trump said that even though Bondi was elected on November 5th, while numerous state and federal criminal investigations were underway, he pledged to keep federal prosecutions from being politicized.

According to Trump, “The biased Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans for an excessive duration.” That is not true anymore.

Discussion about Pam Bondi

In 2013, the Trump Foundation may have broken federal law by giving $25,000 to a political action committee that supported Pam Bondi. Bondi thought about looking into the for-profit Trump University.

Pam Bondi disputed that her decision to end her legal actions against Trump University following the 2016 disclosure of Trump’s $25,000 gift had anything to do with her decision to withdraw from those actions. According to her, all pertinent material was made public by her office.

The Trump team attributed the erroneous money disclosure to a “series of unfortunate coincidences and errors.” New York state fraud investigations resulted in the dissolution of both Trump University and the Trump Foundation.

After misleading Trump University students, he settled for $25 million and was fined $2 million for misusing charitable funds.

Following Special Counsel Jack Smith’s acquisition of two indictments against him for his interference in the 2020 election and his possession of secret materials after leaving office, Trump has voiced his displeasure with the present leadership of the Justice Department and pledged retaliation.

Bondi remains loyal

She and several other lawyers claimed that Smith’s appointment was illegal in an amicus brief they prepared in support of Trump in the secret information litigation. The Justice Department filed an appeal after U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump nominee, rejected the case.

According to a long-standing rule against charging a sitting president, Smith and other top Justice Department officials are examining how both Trump criminal cases were resolved.

Trump was incensed with the obstructionism of the Justice Department during his first administration. Bill Barr specifically refuted Trump’s baseless claims that he lost the 2020 election due to fraud, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions permitted an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Trump’s objectives for the Justice Department have been delineated through his public remarks and interviews with former department lawyers and Mark Paoletta, a conservative lawyer who develops the department’s policy.

Federal prosecutors may give illegal immigration cases priority.

Cities might have to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement to obtain a portion of the department’s $291 million justice assistance award.

The Civil Rights Division will probably refocus its attention from legal challenges to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the public and commercial sectors to police accountability to religious freedom.

SEE ALSO:

PayPal’s Technical Challenges Are Affecting Thousands Of Customers Globally.

Matt Gaetz Withdraws as Trump’s Pick for Attorney General

 

Continue Reading

Trending