When my editor called me Friday and asked if I’d like to fly to Chicago to cover what’s happening here, I, of course, said yes. News had just broken that a Presbyterian pastor had been shot in the head with…
Trump plans to slash refugee admissions and only let in whites
President Donald Trump is expected to cut refugee admissions into the United States to 7,500 next year — a new low for the U.S. and half the previous record-setting low cap set during his first presidency. The administration also is…
Chicago pastor sues Trump after ICE assaults him while praying
A Presbyterian minister attacked by ICE agents during the peaceful protest of a Chicago-area migrant processing center has joined a lawsuit to stop the Trump administration’s violence against demonstrators and media. David Black, senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church of…
Trump boasts of ‘Top 100 Victories for People of Faith’
President Donald Trump recently celebrated his role as “the most pro-faith and pro-religious liberty president in American history” by issuing a little-noticed list of his “Top 100 Victories for People of Faith,” many of them gifts to the evangelicals who…
Coalition sues to stop $100,000 fee on H-1B visas
The Trump administration now faces litigation to block its new $100,000 fee on employer-sponsored nonimmigrant visas. Democracy Forward announced the lawsuit filed Oct. 3 by a coalition of health care providers, labor unions, religious organizations and schools against President Donald…
All the bright lines behind us
Like some of you, I’ve spent the last two weeks participating in services marking the Jewish High Holidays, which mark the end of one year and the beginning of the next. My status as a Christian participant observer to the…
Trump’s attack on universities violates religious freedom
The Trump Educational Compact is an attack on the free exercise of progressive religion. In its typical divide-and-conquer approach, the administration has informed nine colleges and universities they will suffer financial consequences if they do not bow down and meet…
Change fed efforts, treat trafficking survivors as humans
I started my career in 2011 working with trafficking victims. Most days were mundane, cutting rent checks, helping people apply for benefits, going with them to the consulate to get necessary paperwork. I built relationships with survivors in those long…
What’s the law got to do with it?
Immigrant survivors of domestic abuse are more vulnerable than I’ve ever seen in my 20 years of working as a lawyer, thanks to the flurry of confusing and conflicting executive orders issued by the Trump administration. However you feel about undocumented migrants, everyone…
Trump administration eliminates data gathering on US hunger
The Trump administration’s elimination of annual food insecurity reports will plunge the nation into the dark when it comes to feeding hungry Americans, nutrition advocates say. “Ultimately, this is a loss not just for data collection, but for the millions…
Court stops Trump’s middle-of-the-night deportation of children
Some of President Trump’s immigration policies suffered a setback in one federal court and a victory in another. In one case, a federal judge temporarily barred the administration from swiftly deporting nearly 330 Guatemalan children under the premise of reuniting…
‘Interfaith Imam’ released from ICE custody
Imam Ayman Soliman has been released from an Ohio jail after the federal government dropped its deportation case against him and fully reinstated the asylum status he was granted in 2018. The former Cincinnati Children’s Hospital chaplain and Egyptian immigrant…