Tuesday, June 25, 2024
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A View From the Ground
News and information about politics, government, civic participation and engagement from the URL Media network.
“I knew I was gonna be able to serve again, you know,” Braxton told Capital B in a phone call last week. “It’s just how long it was gonna take for us to get some kind of resolution first for this.” (Aallyah Wright/Capital B
After years of litigation, first Black mayor in rural Alabama town gets to serve: Patrick Braxton sued the town of Newbern’s former white administration for conspiring to keep him out of office. Now, after a yearslong battle, a proposed settlement states that Braxton will be reinstated as mayor of Newbern, an Alabama town that is 80% Black with fewer than 200 people, reports Capital B. The proposal just needs to be signed by U.S. District Judge Kristi K. DuBose.
As Capital B reports, Newbern has not had an election for at least 60 years.
“Instead, the mantle has been treated as a ‘hand me down’ by the small percentage of white residents.”
Braxton became mayor in 2020 after being the only one to submit qualifying paperwork and a statement of economic interests. Despite becoming Newbern’s first Black mayor, the previous majority-white town council blocked Braxton from the post. He and his council filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in response in 2022.
Now, four years after being voted in as mayor, Braxton finally gets to serve his community. “I knew I was gonna be able to serve again,” he told Capital B. “It’s just how long it was gonna take for us to get some kind of resolution first for this.”
This win in Newbern, Capital B highlights,“is important because it shows citizens nationwide can still use the courts to be heard.” Read more here →
How do American voters really feel about immigration? The answer is complicated: American voters appear to simultaneously favor deporting unauthorized immigrants, while also supporting their legalization. That’s according to mixed polling leading up to the presidential election.
A recent CBS News poll found that 62% of voters favored the U.S. government enacting a new national program to deport all undocumented immigrants. Meanwhile, a Pew Research Center report released earlier this month showed that 59% of voters favored letting undocumented immigrants stay in the country. So, what accounts for the difference?
“It’s possible that when voters think about legalizing undocumented immigrants they envision long term residents, but they imagine a different group — recent arrivals — when they think of deportations,” said Michael Kagan, a law professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “In other words, they aren’t thinking about the same people in each question.”
The tensions surrounding new and long-term immigrants — and who should access government benefits — are nothing new, but they offer insight into the mixed polls, at a time when President Joe Biden has halted asylum claims while also announcing a new order to shield undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens from deportation.
More from URL Media about what immigrant rights organizers and academics have to say about these age old tensions →
RV community near SF State is uniquely Latinx — and getting pushed out: The space they were promised ahead of a planned repavement project has not materialized, and now residents of this RV community in San Francisco are left scrambling as they seek to find an affordable place to live. With city officials planning to clear the area by July 2, the staff of El Tecolote spent time with the residents of Winston Drive near Lake Merced in San Francisco.
Many of the residents of the “uniquely Latinx community” work in San Francisco’s service sector, gig economy or construction jobs. Brazilians and Central Americans make up a core segment of the population, El Tecolote found. Some are new immigrants, but most have lived in San Francisco for decades.
“The majority of [us] have small children,” Carmen Gonzalez, a recent immigrant from Honduras, told El Tecolote. “Here we feel safer … If we go to another place, we don’t know if there will be danger.”
Outreach efforts are underway, but without access to housing and with a host of parking restrictions across San Francisco, residents are finding it difficult figuring out where to stay. Read El Tecolote’s story here →
Kenyan troops arrive in Haiti amid base construction delays: The first contingent of Kenyan police forces, part of a UN-backed multinational security mission, landed in Haiti on Tuesday and were met with cautious optimism from Haitians “who have been grappling with rampant violence and political turmoil in recent months,” according to The Haitian Times.
The streets buzzed with anticipation as the officers, who are equipped with expertise in anti-gang operations and community policing, disembarked from their aircraft at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince.
The deployment was stalled since January due to funding and other legal and logistical challenges.
“Our police officers’ presence in Haiti will give relief to the men, women, and children whose lives have been broken by gang violence,” said Kenyan President William Ruto on X. “We will work with the international community to bring lasting stability to Haiti.”
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Twice as Good podcast
In the latest episode of URL Media's Twice as Good podcast, hosts Sara and Mitra are joined by guests Madiba Dennie, author of the new book "The Originalism Trap: How Extremists Stole the Constitution And How We The People Can Take It Back," and Brandon Tensley, national politics reporter at Capital B News, to delve into the Supreme Court's alarming rollback of civil rights. Together, they explore what we’re calling the "great retrenchment" — the ongoing assault on Black political power — and spotlight the states that are fighting back. Drawing on the wisdom of Frederick Douglass, they affirm the critical importance of persevering in the struggle for equity and justice for all. 🎧 Listen to the full episode here →
Introducing URL Media's Currency of Impact
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