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SEPTEMBER 14 | 2017 | DEFENDER
national
U.S.briefs CONGRESSWOMAN SHEILA JACKSON LEE HAS BEEN TAPPED to serve as the Chairperson of The 47th Annual Legislative Conference (ALC) of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF), which will be held in Washington, D.C., Sept. 20-24, 2017. The ALC is a leading policy conference on issues impacting the national and global African American communities. Jackson Lee says the CBCF will honor hurricane survivors. “This deadly hurricane hit low income individuals and communities of color extensively. We know the pain, but we also know the resilience and joy that has come from the people of this region. The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation will be helping the survivors of both of these hurricanes to construct and advocate for a powerful and significant response to their families, seniors, children, small businesses and other needs.” STARBUCKS HAS TAPPED former Sam’s Club president and CEO Rosalind Brewer as its newest chief operating officer and group president, making her the first female and first Black American to grace the highest echelons of the coffee company. Beginning Oct. 2, Brewer will oversee the company’s operating businesses across Canada, the United States and Latin America. Her new position is the secondhighest after Starbucks President and CEO Kevin Johnson. Brewer, who joined the Starbucks board of directors in January, already has more than 30 years of management and executive leadership experience under her belt……THE DECISION TO BRING KID ROCK IN as the opening act for a new sports arena in predominantly Black Detroit has injected the musician into the national debate over race and culture because of his embrace of the Confederate flag, an expletivelaced criticism of NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick and unabashed support for President Donald Trump. Kid Rock, who is white, has been lauded for his philanthropy and support of Detroit, but his recent criticism of Kaepernick has prompted one civil rights organization in Detroit to plan a protest and call for the concerts to be canceled….…
VOLUME 86 • NUMBER 49 SEPTEMBER 14 , 2017 Publisher Sonceria Messiah-Jiles Ad/Client Relations Selma Dodson Tyler Digital Editor LaGloria Wheatfall Art Director Tony Fernandez-Davila Engagement Manager Margo Williams Hubbard
Editors ReShonda Billingsley Marilyn Marshall Contributing Writers Aswad Walker Jasemine Knowles Sports Editors Max Edison Darrell K. Ardison
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DACA also affects Black undocumented immigrants Defender News Services
Most of the attention surrounding President Donald Trump’s decision to end a program protecting young undocumented immigrants in the U.S. from being deported has centered on Latinos. But the announcement to rescind the federal government’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) also threatens a separate demographic rarely mentioned in the popular Jonathan Jayes-Green (courtesy of Jonathan Jayes-Green); Tobore Oweh (courtesy of Tebore Oweh); Mwewa Sumbwe (courtesy of Mwewa Sumbwe) immigration narrative: Black immigrants. just one years old. “We live in bubbles, like individual Of the roughly 11 million undocumented imcells. However, we are expected to live and do everymigrants in America, just about 600,000 of them are thing as the rest of society. But how?” Black, according to the most recent statistics by the One of Trump’s signature campaign promises was Migration Policy Institute. That’s a close second to the to tighten and ramp up enforcement of immigration nearly 800,000 undocumented Latino immigrants in laws, but arguably the hallmark of his candidacy was the U.S. the repeated vows to undo a number of former PresiThe Trump administration started taking aim at the dent Barack Obama’s achievements. undocumented population just days after the presiObama recently defended those who were at risk dent was inaugurated, with much of the media reports of being forced from the only country most of them focused on federal agents subsequently rounding up have ever known. Latinos to deport them. “To target these young people is wrong – because It is important to note that Black immigrants were they have done nothing wrong,” Obama wrote in a being “detained and deported at five times the rate of Facebook post. “Whatever concerns or complaints their presence in the undocumented immigrant comAmericans may have about immigration in general, munity,” data from the Black Alliance for Just Immiwe shouldn’t threaten the future of this group of young gration (BAJI) has shown. people who are here through no fault of their own, “We, as undocumented people living in this counwho pose no threat, who are not taking away anything try, feel jailed,” said Shariece Wright, who is Black from the rest of us.” and arrived from the Bahamas in 1985 when she was
Trump administration sabotages Obamacare Associated Press
Affirming its disdain for “Obamacare,” the Trump administration has announced sharp cuts in programs promoting health care enrollment under the Affordable Care Act for next year. Advertising will be cut from $100 million spent on 2017 sign-ups to $10 million, said Health and Human Services officials. Funding for consumer helpers called “navigators” will also be cut about 40 percent, from $62.5 million for 2017, to $36.8 million for next year. That change reflects a new performance-based ethic that penalizes navigator programs failing to meet their sign-up targets.
About 12.2 million people signed up for subsidized private health insurance under former President Barack Obama’s signature law this year, many in states that President Donald Trump carried in November. Current enrollment is estimated to be around 10 million, due to attrition also seen in prior years. Top Democrats accused the administration of malice. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California said the administration is waging a “cynical effort to lower enrollment” that would “create chaos” and increase premiums. Her Senate counterpart, Chuck Schumer of New York, said the administration “is deliberately attempting to sabotage our health care system,” adding that “the American people will know who’s to blame.”
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