Part One:
TRUMP TRIES TO END ASYLUM IN U.S.
We speak with Marcia Brown, intern/fellow reporter for The American Prospect, about Pres. Trump’s recent attacks on the asylum program in the U.S. His administration has promulgated two dangerous sets of rules, both due to take effect this month. Together, the rules will fundamentally change the way the United States decides what to do when people flee harm in their country of origin, and seek protection – asylum – in the US. Many analysts see these changes as virtually eliminating the possibility that anyone will be granted asylum in the US.
One set of rules would dramatically cut back on the *reasons* that people can even assert as valid reasons to qualify for consideration as asylees. Fear of “persecution” is narrowed to apply only to persecution by the applicant’s *government*. No longer will you even qualify to apply for asylum if you allege “merely” that drug cartels or gangs have broken into your home, killed your spouse, and tried to kill you. (Presumably, they’re not part of the government.) Nor will it be valid to seek asylum in order to escape from severe domestic violence , not even a credible fear that your partner will torture or kill you. As for the LGBTQ community, it is not enough that their government hates all gays; the govt must have actually attempted to kill each particular asylum-seeker, or else they will be denied asylum under the new rules.
The result is that many fewer people will even be able to present a claim of asylum to U.S. immigration officials. And once they do present their claims, the decision whether to grant their claims and to offer them safety in the US will be circumscribed by the new regulations’ crabbed interpretative standards.
Trump’s second set of asylum regulations has received much less public discussion so far. It makes life for asylum-seekers much harder after they have filed their asylum claims. Decisions on those claims can take years, and many asylum-seekers try to find work during that time, so they can have the money to support their families. Under the current system – before the new regs become effective – an asylum-seeker is required to wait 150 days after filing to apply for a work permit. And USCIS would have to process the application and decide on one’s work permit within 30 days. The new rules would extend the waiting period to 365 days, before applying for a work permit. And the govt has no deadline (!) for making its decision. Families who are legally in the United States – properly waiting for a work permit so they can support their families – will have no recourse. They will have to just wait.
Our guest reported the story of one Uigher family who was stuck in the netherworld between the old regs and the new. Having entered the US months ago as refugees, they cannot apply for a work permit (under the old rules) until after Aug. 25 when the new rules take effect. When their date comes up, however, the new rules will be in effect and will require them to wait another 215 days before seeking a work permit.
Part 2:
BREAK UP MONOPOLIES – DO NOT COLLECT $200.
We speak with Ron Knox, senior researcher and writer for the Independent Business Initiative, part of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR). He has written many articles about the dangers of monopolies and our government’s inexplicable failure even to recognize – much less to take action to protect against – these dangers.
Monopolies are the weight that is holding this country down. Their power dominates the economy, as they rake in enormous profits at the expense of their employees, customers, and any business that works with them. Their economic power also gives monopolies a great deal of political power, enabling them to intimidate any politician who tries to hold them accountable.
A case in point is Amazon, which our guest researched. As his report (with ILSR) found:
Amazon’s dominance of online retail means that hundreds of thousands of small businesses must rely on its site to reach customers. We find that Amazon is exploiting its gatekeeper power to extract a growing cut of the revenue earned by these sellers. It’s doing this by imposing ever-larger fees on them. This tactic is hobbling sellers and often dooming their businesses. It’s also enabling Amazon to entrench its monopoly grip on e-commerce, while expanding its dominance into logistics [delivering products to consumers] and advertising.
We recognize that the media should be talking about monopolies more. Only then can members of the public learn about how their lives are affected by monopoly power. Only then, as voters, can they decide what to do about monopolists’ influence over the political direction of our country.
A new generation of progressive politicians now seem to be willing to challenge the growing power of monopolies. For the past 40 years, monopolies have been riding high. Now a congressional subcommittee, chaired by RI Rep David Cicillini, has begun hearings to explore monopolization in the tech industry. They called the CEOs of four major tech companies to testify, including Jeff Bezos (owner of Amazon and the Washington Post). Bezos was grilled about Amazon’s aggressive anti-competitive practices and exorbitant profits. (Bezos himself had “earned” $13 billion in one day, while the coronavirus was devastating the rest of us.)
Cicilline’s subcommittee is building a case that these companies have created a form of private government—autocratic regimes that are tightening their control over our main arteries of commerce and information. As such, they threaten Americans’ liberties. “Our founders would not bow before a king,” Cicilline said at the hearing. “Nor should we bow before the emperors of the online economy.”
This kind of Congressional oversight is an example of what real democracy looks like. Congress is (finally) doing its job of holding the powerful elites accountable for actions to line their own pockets even though they are contrary to the American public’s interests. Entire generations of Americans no longer believe that our government can perform their jobs that well, exercising real government oversight, real accountability, real governance. Let’s hope the coming years will bring us more of this.
