Politics
CBC Seeks GOP Cooperation on Economic Challenges
Rep. G. K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), the chairman of the CBC said, “We’ve got to get smarter on crime and there are some Republicans who get that.” (Courtesy Photo)
By Freddie Allen
NNPA Senior Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Working across the aisle with Republicans on criminal justice reform might be the best shot that the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) has to address the economic challenges facing the Black community before the 2016 presidential election, according to the head of the caucus.
“We are having bipartisan conversations on the whole question of criminal justice reform,” said Rep. G. K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), the chairman of the CBC. “There is a group of Republican members that are thoughtful and they are beginning to think through the broken criminal justice system that we have and they are now indicating to us they’re willingness to engage in some type of legislation that will begin to address it.”
As states and jurisdictions weigh the financial burden of mass incarceration against more fiscally responsible criminal justice policies, more lawmakers are considering diversionary programs, decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana to decrease the load on their jails and court systems, and making it easier for ex-offenders to find jobs that pay a living wage after they’ve paid their debt to society.
The Vera Institute of Justice, an independent research and policy group, reported that taxpayers in 40 states shelled out nearly $40 billion in FY2010 to cover the costs of housing inmates and running prisons and jails.
Butterfield speculated that some of his Republican colleagues might just be playing politics with criminal justice reform, but he still welcomed their support.
“We’ve got to get smarter on crime and there are some Republicans who get that,” said Butterfield, adding that the U.S. Congress might see a viable, bipartisan bill on criminal before the August break.
The Joint Economic Committee, a bipartisan panel that studies the U.S. economy, laid out the economic challenges facing the Black community in a recent report. The committee is composed of 10 senators and 10 members of the House of Representatives.
“More than half (51.4 percent) of Black families with children under 18 are headed by a single mother, compared to one-fifth (19.1 percent) of White families with children, and nearly 47 percent of families headed by a Black single mother are in poverty,” stated the report.
The report continued: “The median income of African American households is just $34,600 – nearly $24,000 less than the median income of White households. Black Americans are almost three times more likely to live in poverty than White Americans.”
The report said that at the peak of the Great Recession, one 1 in 6 Blacks was unemployed.
“African-American homeowners who took out mortgages between 2004 and 2008 were almost twice as likely as white homeowners to have lost their home to foreclosure by 2011, according to the Center for Responsible Lending, the report stated. “One-in-ten black homeowners who took out mortgages at the height of the housing boom eventually lost their home to foreclosure.”
The report also included a state-by-state analysis of the poverty and unemployment rates for Blacks and Whites.
The poverty rate for Blacks was highest in Maine at 50.7 percent (1.4 percent Black population) compared to the White poverty rate, which was 13.2 percent. According to the report, Blacks living in Hawaii (2.5 percent of the population) had the lowest poverty rate at 5.8 percent and the poverty rate for Whites living in the Aloha State was 11 percent.
In Washington, D.C., where 48.8 percent of population is Black, the Black unemployment rate is 15.1 percent, five percentage points higher than the national average for Blacks in the labor force.
The jobless rate for Blacks was the highest in Wisconsin at 19.7 percent (6.2 percent Black population), more than four times higher than the 4.3 percent White jobless rate. Although the unemployment rate for Blacks was the lowest in Utah at 1.7 percent (1.6 percent Black population), the poverty rate for Blacks was 34.5 percent in the state, compared to a 9.9 percent White poverty rate.
Maryland was the only state where more than 30 percent of the population is Black and the unemployment rate was less than the national average. In Mississippi (35.9 percent Black), Georgia (31.2 percent Black) and Louisiana (31.3 percent Black) the Black jobless rate was higher than the national average.
Although Rep. Butterfield said that he wasn’t surprised by most of the findings in the report, the wealth gap between Blacks and Whites was stunning.
According to the report, “White households typically have 13 times more wealth than black households. In 2013, the median net worth of African American households was only $11,000 compared to about $142,000 for white households—a difference of $131,000.”
When it comes to solutions to the economic challenges facing the Black community, Rep. Butterfield said that targeted funding leads the list.
In the CBC’s alternative budget for FY2016, the group advocated for the “the use of the 10-20-30 policy for federal spending.”
The plan called for, “at least 10 percent of the federal funds in certain accounts be directed to certain areas that have had a poverty rate of 20 percent for the last 30 years.”
The Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI), a bipartisan program crafted to promote access to capital for businesses and economic growth in low-income underserved communities, determined that 20 percent or more residents in 384 counties, many of them in the South and governed by Republican lawmakers, have lived in “persistent poverty” for more than 30 years.
Under the direction of the Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, the United States Department of Agriculture developed the “StrikeForce Initiative for Rural Growth and Opportunity” in an effort to tackle rural poverty, especially in communities where the child poverty rate was roughly 25 percent.
“Since 2010, these efforts have invested over $16.5 billion to create jobs, build homes, feed kids, assist farmers, and conserve the natural resources across twenty states,” according to the USDA’s website. “In 2015, StrikeForce expanded to include Oklahoma and Puerto Rico.”
More than $6.5 billion were invested in StrikeForce states in 2014 alone. Rep. Butterfield wants to see that program expanded to other federal agencies.
If lawmakers can craft similar programs for the Transportation Department, Health and Human Services and even the Department of Defense, Rep. Butterfield said, “We can begin to see a difference.”
But with the Republicans controlling the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, Rep. Butterfield admitted that finding legislative solutions for problems affecting the Black community is going to be an uphill battle and as both parties rush into 2016 presidential elections those talks may get left behind altogether.
“The tragedy is that we’re now entering the presidential election season and not a whole lot happens during a presidential election season. So our ability to legislate is going to be affected,” said Butterfield.
In the press release about the JEC report, Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) said that even as the country recovers from the worst financial downturn since the Great Depression, African Americans still face persistent economic barriers.
Rep. Byer continued: “If we are to meet the challenge of the promise of equality in America we need to address these inequities in employment, income, wealth, housing and education through policies designed for inclusive prosperity.”
Butterfield said that designing those policies will take higher levels of civic engagement in the Black community and citizens paying attention to what is happening in the world and connecting it to their lives.
“Once they realize what the politicians are doing will affect their bank account and affect their quality of life, then they will begin to participate in the political process,” said Rep. Butterfield. “But if we go to sleep in 2016 and don’t have the Obama turnout that we had in ’08 and ’12 and we lose control of the White Hose, we’re going to have some painful years ahead that nobody wants to see.”
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Business
Car Wash Workers Cope with Lingering Impacts of ICE Raids
WAVE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS — Hundreds of car wash workers across Southern California have been detained in federal immigration raids, leaving lingering impacts on families and communities. Mario, a 33-year U.S. resident and father of three, was arrested at a Santa Ana car wash last August and held for two months.
LOS ANGELES — Mario relied on his job in the car wash industry to raise his three children. It was during a shift at a Santa Ana car wash last August that he was arrested by federal agents, taken to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center and held for two months.
“They made me sleep on the cold floor for a week without a blanket, a toothbrush or basic medical care for the injured man next to me,” Mario, a 33-year resident of the United States, said at a news conference earlier this summer at Inglewood’s Crenshaw Imperial Car Wash, which is now closed after being raided by federal agents.
Mario, who is being identified only by his first name for safety reasons, is among hundreds of car wash workers detained across Southern California in the year since the Trump administration began an aggressive immigration crackdown in the region, according to the CLEAN Carwash Worker Center.
News of raids by masked agents has faded from the headlines, but the effects still linger for those caught in the crosshairs. Family members have been deported or left to languish in detention, and many who remain live with the fear of being hunted down by immigration officers.
At least 373 car wash workers have been detained at car washes across Southern California since the raids began last summer, according to figures compiled by CLEAN. The group’s data also shows federal agents raided or attempted to raid at least 106 car washes in communities across Los Angeles, Orange County and surrounding areas, including Inglewood, Culver City, Westchester, Bell and Whittier.
CLEAN, an advocacy group founded in 2007, has been fighting to protect car wash workers from exploitation and unsafe conditions. When the raids began last year, the group sprang into action, working around the clock to help detained workers and provide their families with legal and financial support.
“We gathered our information from workers, managers, and owners of the car washes that were being raided,” CLEAN Deputy Director Andrea Gonzalez said. “We also gathered information from rapid response teams who were on the ground responding to the raids.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment on the group’s findings.
Mario said he was one of seven workers at the Harbor Blvd Car Wash detained on the same day last August, but the only one who has been released. He said he refused to sign deportation papers and is fighting to stay in the United States, a process that has drained his family emotionally and financially.
“Being released is not the same as being free,” he said.
During Mario’s detention at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, his wife and children struggled to cope with his sudden absence while fighting for his release, his wife Alejandra said.
“The employer gave us a video showing my husband being taken away under arrest, treated worse than a common criminal, with chains binding his legs, arms and waist,” Alejandra said. “It wasn’t right.”
The experience of a car wash worker named José was recounted at the news conference by the Rev. Andy Schwiebert of Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, who said agents “took him” from the La Cienega Car Wash last August.
José’s wife is a U.S. citizen, Schwiebert said, and José had a pathway to gaining citizenship before he was detained. By the time a judge ordered his release on bond, the car wash had shut down, Schwiebert said, leaving José without a job.
“These raids did not just target workers; they destabilized families, congregations, workplaces and entire communities,” Schwiebert said.
The administration’s aggressive enforcement operations have continued across the nation in the months since José’s and Mario’s detention, with ICE arrests in July surging to their highest rate so far under President Donald Trump.
Last month, ICE agents shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old father of three in Houston. Less than a week later, an immigration officer fatally shot 26-year-old Johan Sebastián Duran Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine.
Back in Inglewood, Mario said he was grateful to share his story and that, even though he was released, his experience in detention stays with him.
“I still feel frustrated and traumatized,” Mario said, “because my life is no longer the same as it used to be.”
Ernesto Ureño is a Loyola Marymount University journalism major and intern at Capital & Main, a nonprofit publication focused on inequality. It is published here with permission.
Based on reporting by Wave Community Newspapers.
Crime
Congresswoman Simon Demands Investigation into Trump’s Abuse of Emergency Powers for Coal Export Terminal in West Oakland
POST NEWS GROUP — Last week, in a letter to the GAO Acting Comptroller General Orice Williams Brown, Simon and her colleagues questioned the Department of Energy’s plan to use up to $425 million in DPA funds to support coal-fired power plants and construct the West Gateway Terminal Project in Oakland.
U.S. Rep. Lateefah Simon (D-CA-12) joined California senators and other members of the California delegation to Congress to call on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate the Trump administration’s use of the Defense Production Act and other taxpayer funds to support coal projects, including the proposed coal export terminal in West Oakland.
Defense Production Act funding is for national defense emergencies, such as authorizing private car companies to build parts for tanks or ships.
Since President Donald Trump’s June 4 announcement of $75 million in funding for the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, Simon has opposed and worked to stop the proposed coal terminal.
She filed an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2027 Energy and Water Appropriations bill that would have prohibited funding for the proposed Oakland coal export terminal project; however, House Republicans blocked the amendment.
Last week, in a letter to the GAO Acting Comptroller General Orice Williams Brown, Simon and her colleagues questioned the Department of Energy’s plan to use up to $425 million in DPA funds to support coal-fired power plants and construct the West Gateway Terminal Project in Oakland.
This terminal project would primarily serve foreign commercial markets, rather than meet national emergency needs.
“The Defense Production Act was intended to scale up domestic industrial capabilities to meet urgent military or national emergency needs; therefore, its invocation to construct a commercial, civilian export facility intended primarily to serve foreign commercial markets raises profound statutory, legal, and fiscal questions,” wrote the lawmakers, which included Senators Alex Padilla (D) and Adam Schiff (D), Jared Huffman (D-CA-02), ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee and Reps. John Garamendi (D-CA-08) and Ro Khanna (D-CA-17).
“We do not believe this satisfies the statutory definition of ‘national defense’ or ‘critical infrastructure protection’ under the DPA and that there is no legally sufficient, data-driven nexus between civilian coal exports and immediate U.S. military readiness or critical infrastructure defense,” the lawmakers’ letter said.
DPA funds are intended for U.S. national security and defense readiness. The Trump administration is instead diverting these funds to support a commercial export project that primarily benefits private industries and foreign markets in East Asia.
“Congress has never appropriated funds to the DOE’s DPA account with the intent of propping up a dying industry or financing a purely commercial project,” continued the lawmakers. “We are deeply concerned that DOE has improperly diverted funds from accounts intended by Congress for the critical modernization and resilience support of our nation’s grid to instead finance a commercial fossil fuel export project.”
Simon and colleagues also raised concerns that the Trump administration has improperly diverted funds designated for critical grid modernization and may be using emergency authorities to circumvent local environmental protections.
“With no clear national security nexus, we question whether the DOE utilized emergency DPA authorities with the intent of preempting or subverting valid local health ordinances and environmental regulations. If so, this would be a gross departure from the intent of the DPA,” concluded the lawmakers.
Commentary
OPINION: The Philippines Isn’t Foreign When Your Family Still Lives There
Americans complain about inflation. Filipinos complain about surviving. That’s not a knock on America. It’s a reminder that for millions of Filipino Americans, the Philippines isn’t some faraway place we visit on vacation. It’s where our parents were born. Where our cousins still
Americans complain about inflation.
Filipinos complain about surviving.
That’s not a knock on America. It’s a reminder that for millions of Filipino Americans, the Philippines isn’t some faraway place we visit on vacation. It’s where our parents were born. Where our cousins still live. Where grandparents are buried. Where every phone call home can begin with, “We’re okay,” or, just as easily, “We need help.”
The Bay Area is home to one of the nation’s largest Filipino communities. California alone has nearly two million Filipinos—roughly half of all Filipino Americans in the United States.
Every year, Filipino Americans send an estimated $17 billion from the United States to the Philippines. Those remittances account for roughly a tenth of the Philippine economy. One wire transfer may keep children in school, put food on the table, pay hospital bills, or help elderly parents make it another month.
That’s why Filipino Americans were paying attention to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s State of the Nation Address this week.
They were listening for justice.
They were listening for Lyle Prijoles.
Prijoles, a 40-year-old Filipino American from Hayward, was killed on April 19 during a Philippine military operation in Negros Occidental. Also killed was Kai Sorem, a 26-year-old activist from Seattle.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines say those killed were connected to the Communist Party’s New People’s Army.
Their families say otherwise.
Human-rights advocates describe Prijoles and Sorem as labor organizers and peaceful activists working alongside sugar workers struggling under crushing poverty. Prijoles had traveled repeatedly to the Philippines since 2006, documenting conditions in Negros and advocating for farm workers whose lives rarely improve no matter who occupies the presidential palace in Manila.
Those conflicting stories are exactly why members of Congress, led by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA-7), have called for an independent investigation.
After all, two American citizens are dead.
If an ally’s military kills Americans under disputed circumstances, shouldn’t we want to know exactly what happened?
Yet the story barely made news in the United States.
Perhaps because it’s inconvenient.
It’s inconvenient for Manila – and Washington.
Strategic allies aren’t supposed to kill American citizens.
The Philippines isn’t just another country.
It’s family.
President Marcos had bigger issues on his mind this week.
China’s growing aggression in the West Philippine Sea dominated much of the speech. Marcos rightly rejected racist insults aimed at Filipinos and insisted his country would not surrender its sovereignty.
“We are not racists. We are not liars,” Marcos declared. “We are respectful, and we are dignified. We are Filipinos, and we do not yield.”
Strong words.
But patriotism isn’t measured only by how forcefully a government stands up to China.
It’s also measured by how a government treats its own people.
The Philippines inherited many of America’s democratic institutions. Even the “State of the Nation Address” echoes our “State of the Union.” Congress. Elections. Constitutional government. We exported the architecture of democracy.
What we couldn’t export was accountability.
That’s why activists like Lyle Prijoles believed ordinary workers deserved better.
And that’s why his death matters.
About the Author
Emil Guillermo is an award-winning journalist, political analyst and comic monologist. See him on his microtalk show on YouTube at @emilamok1.
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