Tag: reparations

County in Virginia Votes to Give $2,000 in Taxpayer Dollars to Illegal Immigrants Detained by ICE

Members of the county board in Arlington, Virginia have voted to give $2,000 in taxpayer dollars to illegals who have been detained by ICE.

Is this even legal? And why would taxpayers put up with it? Can anyone imagine another country in the world where this would even happen?

People who were arrested for being in the country illegally are being rewarded with cash that has been taken from citizens as taxes. Does anyone believe this is what the founders had in mind?

Breitbart News reports:

Virginia County Board Votes to Pay $2,000 to Families of Illegal Migrants Arrested by ICE

The Arlington County Board has voted to pay $2,000 in tax money to the families of illegal migrants who are arrested by immigration enforcement officers.

The leaders of the Virginia county created a $50,000 fund of tax dollars to dole out to family members for “basic needs” such as housing, food, and utilities.

“We stand with our immigrant families, and we will not stop doing so,” Board Chair Matt de Ferranti said after the unanimous vote, according to ARLNow. “We are valuing the families of those that have been displaced and removed.”

“This investment in our families is about the urgency we have seen in our community in the last month,” de Ferranti added. “And we are going to respond with care. and we are going to respond proudly. That’s what this $50,000 is toward with Thrive.”

The board also voted not to require family members to prove that their detained wage earner was legally allowed to work in the U.S.

The government funds will be distributed by left-wing organization Arlington Thrive, an NGO funded by the likes of Washington Forest Foundation, the Kaiser Foundation, and the United Way, among others.

Keep reading

UN Calls for Global Slavery Reparations  

A UN organ is making demands so incredible it would be unbelievable had we not heard similar loud cries from race hucksters a few years ago.

The UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) published a document calling for immediate “financial compensation, educational initiatives and institutional reforms” to remedy supposed harms that persist today as a result of the transatlantic slave trade, which ended more than 200 years ago (in fact, it was the West that led the charge in eliminating chattel slavery altogether, which had been happening everywhere since time immemorial).

The committee speaks with authority. It claims that the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) treaty “imposes broad and immediate obligations.”

The recommendation is directed at the 182 countries that ratified the ICERD treaty. That includes the United States, the U.K., France, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, and many others. You can see the full list here.

Bold Claims, Bold Demands

The ICERD, though more than half a century old, is the basis for the bold demands in the CERD document. The committee also cites additional treaties for support, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Those treaties were adopted, respectively, in 1966 and 1984. The United States has ratified all of them, and they are considered binding.

According to this UN committee, the slave trade might have ended, but it still looms over contemporary laws, policies, and institutions. As a result, everything about Western society is inherently racist. According to the document, modern manifestations of this racist system “include racial profiling and the disproportionate use of force by law enforcement officials; racial disparities in criminal justice systems; and discriminatory laws, policies and institutional practices affecting access to housing, education, employment and health care.”

The documents’ authors claim:

Despite formal legal reforms, racialized violence, stereotyping and structural barriers continue to constrain, inter alia, educational attainment, economic mobility, health outcomes and environmental safety, producing enduring intergenerational disparities.

Structural Implementation

So, action must be taken. The UN Committee “recommends that structural measures be implemented as a matter of policy, thereby recognizing collective harms, even when harms to a specific individual have not been established.” This should include “compensation, restitution and other forms of satisfaction.” It repeats this point several times. And every time it does, it adds another layer of nonsense. The document also says that people may “seek reparations through restitution, compensation, cessation, guarantees of non-repetition, and satisfaction, including acknowledgement of responsibility and apologies.”

The committee also calls for “equality” in politics and the criminalization of speech that offends its version of history. Governments should “condemn and criminalize racist hate speech and the dissemination of theories of racial superiority,” say the authors.

Guilt by Association

What about the countries that weren’t involved in that slave trade? (Conveniently, there is no mention of the African accomplices who participated in the European slave trade.) It doesn’t matter. Everybody needs to pay up. The authors explain why:

While some States bear direct responsibility for trafficking in enslaved Africans and racialized transatlantic chattel slavery others may have benefited from, facilitated, or contributed to sustaining the global economic and racial structures that emerged from these systems. At the same time, there are some States that neither engaged in nor benefited from these practices. Notwithstanding this distinction, all States have a responsibility to support reparatory justice for the legacies of these historical injustices given their enduring global impacts.

There is no excuse for what happened. That includes the norms of the era. “By recognizing the persistence of systemic racism and its roots in historical slavery,” the document says, “the Committee considers that the States Parties should take action today … regardless of the legal framework applicable at the time of the historical acts.”

Keep reading

YouTube Children’s Host ‘Ms. Rachel’ Now Pushing Reparations for Slavery and Jim Crow

The last time we checked in on popular YouTube children’s host ‘Ms. Rachel’ it was because it had been reported that she donated thousands of dollars to the campaign of Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.

Now she is calling for slavery reparations.

It’s starting to look like this woman is a kind of radical leftist. What other conclusion could one reach?

Breitbart News reports:

Children’s YouTube, Netflix Star Ms. Rachel Pushes Reparations for Slavery and Jim Crow Laws

Children’s YouTube and Netflix star Ms. Rachel has added support for reparations over slavery and Jim Crow Laws to her growing catalogue of left-wing causes, taking her latest stance via an Instagram post to her five million-plus followers.

Ms. Rachel, AKA Rachel Accurso, took an excerpt from Ta-Nehisi Coates’ 2014 essay The Case for Reparations to illustrate the need to “reckon” with America’s history of slavery.

“Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole,” the quote read.

Ta-Nehisi Paul Coates is an American author, journalist, and activist whose essay “The Case for Reparations” argued “American prosperity was ill-gotten” and the nation needs to reconcile with its past beyond handing out money.

Neither Coates nor Ms. Rachel seem to care to acknowledge how both slavery and Jim Crow Laws were Democrat Party constructs.

Keep reading

Crazy Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson Now Pushing for Reparations Over ICE Raids 

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson must be suffering from low approval ratings because he is pushing for reparations again. This time, it’s not over slavery but about people from parts of the city that were subjected to ICE raids.

Of course, there is absolutely no money for this. The city of Chicago is broke, but Johnson has no intention of ever actually delivering on this anyway.

Johnson is simply trying to curry favor with an electorate which can’t stand him.

Townhall reports:

The city of Chicago is billions of dollars in debt, including $36 billion in pension debt. The Chicago Public School district also has a budget deficit of more than $700 million. Despite these very dire fiscal parameters, Mayor Brandon Johnson wants to spend more taxpayer money to give reparations to areas where ICE conducted immigration enforcement raids.

“I believe the most relevant ballot referendum question around receiving reparations for communities that experienced that hardship, and whether that was on the west side of Chicago or the black man being placed in an illegal chokehold or long guns being stuck into the faces of women and children, zip-tied and thrown into vehicles. Kidnapped, shot at. I mean, police officers, tear gas, right?” Johnson said. “So the updated policy in the spirit of my executive order, there’s greater alignment to create a pathway to accountability.”

Keep reading

Socialist Congressional Candidate Melat Kiros: We Can’t Tackle White Supremacy Without Reparations

America cannot tackle “white supremacy” without “reparations,” socialist congressional candidate Melat Kiros said during a recent discussion.

Kiros, who unseated 15-term Democrat Rep. Diana DeGette in Colorado’s First Congressional District primary, spoke with Walter Rhein and explained that she believes there is a racism that exists as a “product of growing up in a white supremacist society.”

“One of the things that brought me into starting my PhD program was finally coming to the realization that we were never really going to be able to tackle white supremacy in the way that we need to without reparations,” she said, asserting there is “no way to truly heal” and progress without that.

She said she researched wealth inequality data by race and found that “the gap between poor white people and rich white people and the gap between poor black people and rich black people is actually identical, and the gap between black people, white people in general, can actually be reasonably explained by the failure of the Reconstruction Era and our inability to actually repair the harm that was done.”

From there, she claimed, the “harms just continued to compound on one another, leading to a lot of the wealth inequality that we’re seeing today.”

Americans must understand “where” the harm is, she continued, and they must be able to “quantify racism.” She also believes there must be a new word for “white supremacy.”

“I almost think there needs to be a new word, because there’s racism that is coming from, you know, places of hatred and, you know, true bigotry, and then there’s racism that is just a product of growing up in a white supremacist society,” she said, declaring that America is “objectively a white supremacist society.”

“And I think there are a lot of people that engage in these kind of racist stereotypes without the intention of doing so, and so I think there has to be a little bit of separation in order for people to not be so afraid of being tacked on with this idea of racism, acknowledging that it exists within every single group,” she said, essentially calling on Americans to admit they are racist, even if they are not.

“You know, there’s anti-blackness within the black community as well, and you know, being able to understand all of these things, I think, is going to be the first step that’s necessary before we’re able to actually meaningfully fight for reparations, but I do not think we can’t get any kind of meaningful change without reparations,” she said, later emphasizing, “If we want to really address white supremacy in this country, we have to talk about reparations.”

Keep reading

AfD’s Weidel Demands Ukraine Pay Reparations Over Nord Stream “State Terrorist” Attack; Calls for End of Military and Financial Support

Co-leader of Alternative for Germany (AfD)—the most popular party in Germany—Alice Weidel has demanded that Ukraine pay reparations to Germany over the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines, escalating a political fight over German sovereignty, cheap energy, deindustrialization, and Berlin’s open-ended support for Kyiv.

Speaking at an AfD event on Tuesday, Weidel rejected Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s proposal to move Ukraine closer to the European Union through associate membership. She described Kyiv as a “bottomless pit” that has already drained enormous sums from German taxpayers.

“Germany has already transferred more than €100 billion to Ukraine over the past four years alone,” Weidel said.

Her remarks come as German investigators continue pursuing suspects in the September 2022 sabotage of Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2—the Baltic Sea pipelines built to carry Russian natural gas directly to Germany.

The blasts destroyed three of the four pipeline strands at a depth of roughly 80 meters. Nord Stream 1 had long delivered large volumes of cheap Russian gas to Germany, while Nord Stream 2 had been completed but never activated because of political tensions over Ukraine.

The sabotage, as many Germans see it, was not merely an attack on infrastructure, but an attack on Germany’s industrial future, energy independence, working class, and ability to remain economically sovereign.

Weidel said Ukraine must explain its role before Berlin considers further concessions, aid, or EU privileges, framing the pipeline destruction as a direct assault on Germany’s most important energy lifeline.

“We need to know how this state-terrorist act against the most important infrastructure we had, namely the Nord Stream pipelines, came about and what role Ukraine played in it,” she said.

German investigators have reportedly attributed the explosions to a small group of Ukrainian operatives. The alleged ringleader was extradited to Germany from Italy last autumn.

Keep reading

A DOJ Brief Preposterously Insists That Trump’s ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ Was Politically Neutral

In a brief filed on Friday, Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. argues that a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s brazenly corrupt “Anti-Weaponization Fund” is moot because the Justice Department does not plan to implement the idea. Woodward also notes that the lawsuit, Floyd v. Department of Justice, is based on the premise that the fund was designed to benefit Trump’s supporters, excluding Democrats who claim they were victims of Republican “lawfare and weaponization.” And that, he says, is simply not true.

Trump himself cast doubt on both of those arguments in a Meet the Press interview that aired two days after Woodward filed his brief. The president suggested that the fund, which was part of a May 18 “settlement agreement” that resolved his lawsuit against the IRS, might not be dead after all. And he described the intended beneficiaries as people who “have been hurt so badly by radical-left lunatics” who “worked for the Biden administration and Sleepy Joe.”

As the contrast between Woodward’s arguments in court and Trump’s comments on TV illustrates, the Justice Department’s portrayal of the Anti-Weaponization Fund is completely divorced from reality. Woodward’s description of the fund, which he officially approved by signing the “settlement agreement,” glides over the reasons why it provoked the bipartisan backlash that persuaded Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to ditch the idea two weeks after announcing it.

The pretext for the Anti-Weaponization Fund was a lawsuit in which Trump preposterously claimed that IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn’s illegal leaking of his tax returns had caused “at least” $10 billion in damages. In addition to offering an improbable estimate of the injury he had suffered, Trump missed the statutory deadline for filing such claims. And even if he had filed his lawsuit on time, he would have faced the challenge of showing that the IRS was responsible for the crimes of a man it did not employ.

Despite those legal weaknesses, the Justice Department never mounted a defense. That failure underlined the blatant conflicts of interest created by the lawsuit, which pitted Trump against agencies he oversees in a case where both sides were represented by attorneys who work for him. The situation was so bizarre that Kathleen Williams, the federal judge overseeing the case in the Southern District of Florida, questioned whether it involved a genuine controversy between adverse parties, as required for the lawsuit to proceed.

Keep reading

State of New York Hearing: Reparations for Slavery Only Form of ‘True Justice’

Black New Yorkers attending a state commission studying remedies for racism said they were due cash reparations for slavery and other past injustices.

The New York “State Community Commission on Reparations Remedies” hearing follows Gov. Kathy Hochul signing a bill in 2023 for a commission to study slavery in New York state and examine various forms of compensation.

“We need $800,000 for each foundational black American. That’s simple,” Aubrey Muhammud, one of the attendees, told Fox News Digital. “That’s — in New York — that’s about the cost of living that’ll get you a home or a small business or for you to recover from any financial duress.”

New York joins several other Democratic run states and local municipalities looking to issue reparations in some form.

The Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois went as far as paying $25,000 in cash to Black residents to address past racial housing discrimination, according to Fox’s coverage of the controversial issue Saturday.

San Francisco enacted legislation earlier this year establishing official reparations of $5 million to each eligible Black residents. However, facing a $1 billion city budget deficit, the measure contains no taxpayer-allocated funds or guaranteed cash payouts.

New York’s public hearing allowed for residents to relate their experiences to the commission, reportedly in an effort to examine past discriminatory policies and slavery in the United States.

“Certainly grateful that you all came up here today to enjoy and participate and lend your voice to this public hearing. Our theme today is truth before repair,” commissioner Seanelle Hawkins told the audience.

Who exactly would get payments is a matter of concern to some attendees.

Keep reading

Black New Yorkers Reveal How Much They Want in Reparations from the State and What They Think These Payments Should Look Like

Black New York residents have some provocative thoughts on the issue of reparations as compensation for slavery and other ‘racial injustices.’

Back in December 2023, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill that established a “community commission to study the history of slavery in New York state” to examine “various forms of reparations.”

Less than a year later, an emboldened NYC council passed slavery reparations legislation to ‘yield material solutions’ from US history.

FOX News caught up with activists following a New York State Community Commission on Reparations Remedies last Saturday and asked them several questions, including how much the reparations should cost.

One New Yorker said that the cost per resident should be “$800,000 for each foundation of Black Americans.”

“We need $800,000 for each foundation of Black Americans. That’s simple,” Aubrey Muhammud told Fox News in an interview. “That’s in New York.”

“That’s about the cost of living that’ll get you a home, or a small business, or for you to recover from any financial duress.”

New Yorkers had differing opinions on what such payments should look like, however. One thought it should operate like a central bank for black people.

“I think it should be, me personally, I think there should be a new Freedmen’s Bureau back, and that is like a central bank almost to Black America and would be distributed to Black communities,” Rex Burns said.

Others said the state government should write a check.

“It shouldn’t only be a check, but it should start with a check,” Brooke Lean told Fox News.

Regardless of the final payment amount and method, locals who attended the public hearing said that the government owed them after their ancestors were enslaved.

“I think that we are owed a debt,” Caprice Reins told Fox News.

Attendee Tanasia Poke added that financial compensation is the only way to achieve “true justice.”

“It’s been the greatest impact to our community overall, generationally. And so, by policy and finance, it’s how it’s been institutionalized in the first place. It is the way to repair it,” Poke said.

Keep reading

Judge Blocks DOJ Victim Restitution After Leftists Complained The Victims Were Conservatives

Afederal judge blocked the Trump administration’s $1.776 billion anti-weaponization restitution fund Friday after plaintiffs claimed the fund was politically discriminatory because it helped victims of Democrat administrations. The Department of Justice created the fund earlier this month to provide restitution for targets of federal political persecution regardless of political affiliation.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, an appointee of President Bill Clinton with a history of ruling against the Trump administration, temporarily blocked the Justice Department from establishing the fund while Brinkema hears legal arguments.

Andrew Floyd, a fired assistant U.S. attorney and Jan. 6 prosecutor, John Caravello, a professor who was accused and acquitted of assaulting a federal agent, the National Abortion Federation, and far-left nonprofit Common Cause sued the Department of Justice last week to stop the fund.

With seemingly no sense of irony, the plaintiffs’ primary claim is that the fund is politically discriminatory against Democrats, apparently because the lion’s share of potential victims seeking restitution would be conservatives targeted by the Biden and Obama administrations. The plaintiffs’ argument implies that, because Democrat administrations decided to conduct large-scale political persecutions of normal Americans they perceived as their enemies — and there is a much larger number in that victim pool — restitution should not be allowed.

“By its own terms, the Anti-Weaponization Fund is available only to claimants who assert that they were targeted by ‘Democrat’ administrations, even though the current administration has weaponized the awesome power of the federal government against its perceived political opponents like no other administration before it,” the lawsuit states. The suit declines to acknowledge how the Biden administration sent its federal thugs after Americans peacefully praying outside abortion facilities, or parents concerned about their children’s public schools, or Catholics who attend Latin Mass, or Jan. 6 protesters who were wildly overcharged and over-sentenced, and much more. It also does not meaningfully mention the Obama administration’s targeting of the Trump campaign, the Russia collusion hoax, or any other abuse that effectively stripped the American people of proper representation in the White House by kneecapping Trump’s first term.

Vice President J.D. Vance has said that the fund is open to anyone who believes he was unfairly targeted by the federal government, explicitly stating it was open to Democrats as well. Each claim, he said, would be decided on a case-by-case basis. A DOJ overview of the fund explicitly states that “Democrats can submit claims, too.” It also notes that the fund is for victims of “use of government power to target them for ‘improper and unlawful’ reasons,” without mentioning a requirement that a particular party have wielded the power.

Floyd, through public statements, may be inadvertently making the case for the fund, as he has been displaying the zeal with which prosecutors like himself wanted to punish Jan. 6 protesters.

“First, hundreds of people attacked the foundation of an ordered society by trying to stop the results of a free and fair election — committing serious assaults on law enforcement and other crimes as they did so,” he said. “Then, this administration pardoned them — removing the accountability that had been hard earned by victims, witnesses, law enforcement, and prosecutors and imposed by impartial jurors and judges. Now they are asking taxpayers to illegally reward them for their crimes.”

Keep reading