Behind the Headlines
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Behind the Headlines: Human Rights at the Ballot Box
Tags Share Immigration and criminal legal issues have been center stage in the 2024 election cycle, from Former President Donald Trump’s repeated attacks on immigrants and plans for mass deportations to Vice President Kamala Harris’s record as a former prosecutor. But the national media’s near-exclusive focus on the presidential election obscures other important votes taking…
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Behind the Headlines: The Urgency of Decarceration in the Fight for Climate Justice
Tags Share In October, Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida, just weeks after Hurricane Helene, which killed over 200 people across six states. Scientists believe that the intensity and frequency of severe hurricanes in recent years is in large part due to climate change. In one of the largest and most urgent evacuation efforts in…
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Behind the Headlines: Reparative Justice for Sonya Massey
Tags Share This week, Illinois state police released body camera footage of a sheriff’s deputy murdering Sonya Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman and mother of two, in the kitchen of her home. On July 6, 2024, Sonya called police to report a suspected break-in of her house. Officers from the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office arrived and,…
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Behind The Headlines: Proposed Rollbacks Of Criminal Legal Reforms Disconnected From Reality
Tags Share In California, the nation’s most populous state, opponents of criminal legal reforms are supporting a ballot initiative that aims to overturn a decade’s worth of previous ballot initiatives that reduced jail time for a number of property and drug crimes. The proposed rollback is the latest pro-prison initiative to gain steam in recent…
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Behind The Headlines: Turmoil In Texas As Ugly State Vs Federal Government Battle Over Who Controls Immigration Law
Tags Share This week, federal courts extended a pause on enforcement of S.B. 4, a Texas law that allows state police to arrest people they suspect crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without valid immigration status. S.B. 4 requires state judges to order people to leave the U.S. or face up to 20 years in prison if…
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Behind the Headlines: A Leadership Vacuum at Border Patrol Exposes Flawed Migration Management Strategy
Tags Share Last week, President Biden and Donald Trump made separate visits to the border, highlighting the political importance of an issue that 80% of Americans say the U.S. government is doing a bad job handling: the arrival of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. It’s no secret that the United States, just like other wealthy…
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Behind the Headlines: Immigrant Detention in the Blocked Border Security Bill
Tags Share In Washington, a proposed border bill — which would be the most significant updates to immigration law since 1996 — looks to be scuttled for now, but the issue of the border isn’t going anywhere. Let’s take a more detailed look into how the bill proposed to deal with increasing numbers of arriving…
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