Action comes after Union-Tribune reports seven children missing from Southwest Key facility

By Paul Kruze, Contributing Editor

Photo: Ana Babudar, Southwest Key Programs Inc., addresses City Council

Watch video testimony here

December 14, 2018 (El Cajon) -- The El Cajon City Council on Tuesday unanimously voted to approve a proposal asking staff to prepare letters to the California Department of Social Services and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services asking for a review of Southwest Key Programs, Inc, The Texas-based company provides extended care for undocumented immigrant children. Its El Cajon facility, known locally as “Casa San Diego,” contracts with the federal government to provide care to children who show up at the U.S.-Mexico border without any parents, as well as some children who were separated from their legal guardians by U.S. immigration officials.

Co-sponsored by Council members Steve Goble and Gary Kendrick, the proposal stems from a November 18, 2018 San Diego Union-Tribune article that revealed discrepancies with Southwest Key reports to the El Cajon Police Department and California Department of Social Services.

East County News Service

December 9, 2018 (Sacramento) - California Attorney General Xavier Becerra led a multistate amicus brief filed in support of a lawsuit brought by the ACLU, which challenges the Trump Administration’s efforts to prevent people who have not entered the country at a “port of entry” from applying for asylum in the United States. 

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: federal shelter for migrant children in El Cajon, where five runaways remain unaccounted for

November 28, 2018 (El Cajon) -- Concerns over the safety and well-being of migrant children are rising amid disturbing reports of sexual abuse and medical neglect at federal detention centers in Arizona and Texas, as well as runaways from an El Cajon shelter who remain unaccounted for.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Screenshot off CBS 8 live feed

Update November 26, 2018 with comments from Congresswoman Susan Davis.

Update 5:30 p.m.: Border Patrol has reopened northbound and southbound lanes.

November 25, 2018 (San Diego)—U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has shut down the international border at San Ysidro in both directions today, also closing major highways and roads nearby including portions of I-5, I-805, and state route 905.  A trolley line and pedestrian crossing that closed temporarily have since reopened.

When some members of a migrant caravan from Central America attempted to cross into the U.S., agents repelled them with tear gas. Reuters reports children and babies were screaming after the attack. There are also eyewitness reports that a loud sound device was deployed, possibly a flash-bang device or a sonic weapon.

The border shutdown on a busy holiday weekend inconvenienced vacationers on both sides of the border seeking to return home.  Border crossers were forced to detour and endure hours-long waits to crossings at Otay or Tecate.

By Miriam Raftery

November 5, 2018 (San Diego) – President Donald Trump, in an interview with Axios, declared his intention to eliminate birthright citizenship by executive order – a move that reputable legal scholars on both the left and right agree would be unconstitutional.  Congressman Duncan D. Hunter (R-Alpine) has previously supported a bill in Congress to similarly end granting citizenship to most children of immigrants born here.

Trump stated,  "You can definitely do it with an Act of Congress. But now they're saying I can do it just with an executive order." 

But the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. is crystal clear that everyone born in the U.S. must be granted citizenship.  It states: "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." Moreover, the Supreme Court has upheld that the amendment does cover children of immigrants, regardless of their parents' legal status.

Review by Kathy Carpenter

Photos courtesy Eva Anderson

October 15, 2018, (City Heights) – Questa, the chronicles of an American family, is a celebration of director Spencer John Powell's ancestors from the beautiful little village of Questa, New Mexico. Alex Haley once said, "In every conceivable manner, the family is the link to our past, bridge to our future."  Powell celebrates his family with this dance tribute, performed by Visionary Dance Theatre  in 13 amazing contemporary dance numbers. 

East County News Service

October 1, 2018 (City Heights) – Visionary Dance Theatre of La Mesa will present “Questa," chronicles of an American family, at the City Heights Performance Annex (3795 Fairmount Ave., San Diego) on October 11th-13th at 8 p.m.

The performance is based on the genealogical work of Artistic Director Spencer John Powell’s ancestors from the beautiful little village of Questa, New Mexico. He has traced his family’s roots back to the early 1600s and has developed work representing the family names of Duran, Rael, and Quintana, their indigenous, Spanish, Jewish, French and African lineage.  Powell also explores the beautiful landscape of this village nestled in the mountains.

Source:  Grossmont/Cuyamaca Community College District

September 10, 2018 (El Cajon) – Food, music and dance at Cuyamaca College and a visit at Grossmont College by nationally acclaimed poet Yosimar Reyes will highlight a series of special events honoring Latinx Heritage Month at the two East County colleges from mid-September to Nov. 1. All events are free and open to the public.

By Miriam Raftery

August 9, 2018 (Washington D.C.) – U.S. District Judge John Bates issued a ruling last week order the Trump administration to fully restore the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.  The program protects many young immigrants who came here as children from deportation.

Trump announced plans to shut down the program and his administration has stopped accepting applications or processing renewals. But the judge ruled Trump’s rationale for dropping DACA, a program created during the Obama administration, did not pass legal muster.

By Miriam Raftery

July 16, 2018 (San Diego) — U.S. District Court Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego issued an order today blocking deportations of immigrant families until at least July 23 to assure that parents are not deported without their children, require the government to respond to ACLU papers, and to allow reunited families time to decide whether to seek asylum. 

By Miriam Raftery

Photo, left: Child migrant detention facility in El Cajon

July 8, 2018 (El Cajon) – Activists are organizing a protest rally Tuesday, July 10th from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. in front of El Cajon’s City Hall (200 Civic Center Way) to call for a public hearing on a federal internment facility holding immigrant boys, including some who were separated from their parents at the border and others who arrived as unaccompanied minors.

The activity is part of the national #familiesbelongtogether movement following disclosure that thousands of children have been separated from their undocumented immigrant parents at the border.  Following exposure in media, children as young as one year of age have been ordered by the government to represent themselves at immigration hearings and some parents deported without their children.

“Our mission will be to apply extreme and persistent pressure upon the El Cajon City Council to hold one or more Public Hearings providing full discloser as to population welfare, and operational practices, of El Cajon's Migrant Youth Internment Facility," organizers state on a Meetup page for the event.

East County News Service

July 3, 2018 (Sacramento) – A preliminary injunction obtained by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra in January halted the Trump administration from ending renewals of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

East County News Service

June 28, 2018 (San Diego) – Earlier this month, members of Congress visited detention facilities holding boys separated from their immigrant parents at the border. But thus far, no members have been allowed to go inside facilities holding girls who were taken from their mothers or fathers, and no photos have been released showing girls inside the detention centers including one in Lemon Grove.  Now San Diego Congresswoman Susan Davis has signed a letter along with over 50 Democratic women members of Congress pressing the  Secretaries of Homeland Security (DHS) and Health and Human Services (HHS) to release details about immigrant children separated from their parents. 

By Chris Stone

Reprinted with permission from Times of San Diego, a San Diego Online News Association member

Photo:  Many women and children from Mexico and Central America waited to see if they would be the next people allowed to enter the U.S. Photo by Chris Stone

June 24, 2018 (San Diego) - Natash waited in line Saturday morning to present herself to U.S. immigration officials at the PedWest Port of Entry, believing that America is the “best place where human rights are respected.

Critics denounce plant to incarcerate entire families

By Miriam Raftery

Photo:  Protester outside immigrant child detention facility in El Cajon

June 20, 2018 (Washington D.C.) -- President Donald Trump today announced that he has signed an executive order to end the controversial separation of children and parents at the border. The Trump administration now plans to detain parents and their kids together for the foreseeable future, the New York Times reports.