BTR News: The Immigration Issue Is Not A Simple Issue For The Black Community

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:07:09 — 58.2MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Amazon Music | iHeartRadio | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More

Tune in for news, information and commentary on some the news stories of the week.

The main topic tonight is immigration with so much activity being highlighted in the news. The immigration issue is complex one for the Black community and is not as simple as some would have you believe. An activist in the Los Angeles area supports the Trump deportation activities citing how Blacks are terrorized by immigrant gangs. He also believes undocumented workers are part of the problem of high unemployment in the Black community. Ted Hayes, a civil rights homeless activist, spoke to RT America’s Manila Chan about the issue. What are your thoughts on the issue?

The immigration issue is not just related to undocumented workers from South of the US border and the way Muslims are being profiled is racist and religiously bigoted. The son of famed boxer and Black freedom fighter Muhammad Ali was detained for two hours at the airport and questioned by immigration officials presumably, about his name and his religion.

According to an USA Today Network article, “Muhammad Ali Jr., 44, and his mother Khalilah Camacho-Ali, the second wife of Muhammad Ali, were arriving at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Feb. 7 after returning from speaking at a Black History Month event in Montego Bay, Jamaica. They were pulled aside while going through customs because of their Arabic-sounding names, according to family friend and lawyer Chris Mancini. Immigration officials let Camacho-Ali go after she showed them a photo of herself with her ex-husband, but her son did not have such a photo. Mancini said officials held and questioned Ali Jr. for nearly two hours, repeatedly asking him, “Where did you get your name from?” and “Are you Muslim?”

According to the US Department of Justice, this could be interpreted as law enforcement violating Mr. Ali Jr’s Equal Protections rights regardless of his being a US Citizen. From the DOJ, “ Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. They may also be violations of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. That law prohibits discrimination because of national origin, race, color, religion, or sex by a police department that gets federal funds through the U.S. Department of Justice. They may also violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination by law enforcement agencies that receive any federal financial assistance, including asset forfeiture property.”

Hillary Clinton put out a video today interjecting herself into the current political climate. However, a new pay to play scandal has emerged which is exclusively being reported by Radar Online. “RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned that the disgraced politico secretly took cash from a New York-based weapon manufacturer – one who coincidentally secured a shady $418 million deal on the last day of the Obama Administration!”

Lastly, people are up in defense of the US corporate media after CEO Trump banned CNN and a few others from a presser. He also said he will not go to the WH Correspondent Dinner in Washington, DC. However, I hardly see how any one can defend an institution in the United States that has been guilty of spreading racist hate in its newspapers, provided justifications for white terrorism, willingly participated in the demonization of freedom fighters and worked directly with the CIA in Operation Mockingbird. The media is no friend of Black people or freedom and that is for sure.