SUNDAY, MARCH 26, 2017 INTERNATIONAL School rape fuels Trump-era debate on immigration

WASHINGTON: A rape at a Washington News reports say Sanchez Milian was like Sanchez Milian, can be placed in a often links immigration to higher crime area high school has drawn intense scruti- born in Guatemala and in August 2016 public school in contact with much rates, although no serious studies back up ny as part of the immigration debate crossed the Rio Grande separating Mexico younger people. Fox News, which is pop- this claim. In announcing his candidacy in launched under President , from the , as do many ular with conservatives, has provided June 2015, Trump famously said that since the two alleged attackers are Latinos seeking to escape poverty and blanket coverage of the rape in all its ugly, some of the Mexicans who cross the bor- Latinos who entered the United States find a better life in the United States. He violent detail. The television network also der illegally are rapists and drug dealers. illegally. Under normal circumstances, a was picked up by border control agents. A claimed there were links between the He has also called Latino migrants “bad case like this would not make national few days later, he was let go to join his rape and so-called sanctuary cities, where hombres.” The controversy deepened headlines. But these are not normal times father, who was living in Maryland while local authorities do not cooperate with when the Republican governor of in America. The attack feeds perfectly into the youth waited to appear before an their federal counterparts on immigration Maryland, Larry Hogan, urged the Trump narrative that the United States immigration judge. That hearing has not and deportation matters. Montgomery County officials to cooper- has porous borders and does not give pri- even been scheduled yet, because of a The case took on national dimensions ate fully with the probe into the rape. This ority to native-born Americans, and that huge backlog in the courts: half a million Tuesday. when White House spokesman was seen by some as a veiled criticism unauthorized immigrants mean more and cases involving unauthorized immigrants Sean Spicer called the sexual assault that they had been dragging their feet. more violent crime. waiting to see if they can stay or will be “shocking, disturbing, horrific.” “I think Jose Montano, 17, and Henry Sanchez deported. An estimated 11 million people part of the reason that the president has Totally indecent Milian, 18, are accused of brutally raping a live in the country illegally, most of them made illegal immigration and crackdown Jack Smith, the Montgomery County 14-year-old classmate in a bathroom dur- Mexicans and other Latinos. such a big deal is because of tragedies Public Schools superintendent, said it is Photo provided by the Montgomery ing school hours. They have been arrested like this,” Spicer said. Rockville “should “totally inappropriate to suggest that County, Md Police Department shows and are in custody as they wait to go Xenophobia look at its policies,” he added. Under we’re going to deny a 14-year-old, a 16- Henry Sanchez. Henry Sanchez, 18, before a judge. The rape took place last The rape unexpectedly threw gasoline Maryland law, anyone aged 5 to 21 has year-old, an 18-year-old an education one of two students charged with week at a public high school in Rockville, on the red hot national immigration the right to go to school, even if they are because of a horrible thing that hap- raping a 14-year-old girl in a Maryland, a Washington suburb in debate, including plenty of xenophobic in the country illegally. pened in our schools last Thursday.” He Maryland high school bathroom Montgomery County, which is strongly commentary on social media. Many The Trump administration is accused defended putting 17- or 18-year-olds entered the US illegally. The crime pro-Democratic. Seventy-six percent of Republican lawmakers wondered aloud of trying to score political points at the in class with younger kids if the for- became part of a national debate on the county’s voters went with Hillary how an authorized immigrant who does expense of Montano, who was born in El mer’s educational level requires some immigration. — AP Clinton in the November election. not speak English and is legally an adult, Salvador, and Sanchez Milian. Trump catching up. — AFP US Speaker Ryan dented by healthcare debacle

WASHINGTON: US House Speaker Paul former President Barack Obama’s signa- Ryan on Friday acknowledged the ture domestic policy achievement, the unthinkable for a Republican leader: he 2010 Affordable Care Act, popularly could not deliver the votes to repeal and known as Obamacare. replace Obamacare, even though he and Amash is a member of the hard-line his fellow Republicans had vowed to do so conservative , which in for seven years. Nevertheless, Ryan’s job 2015 ousted Ryan’s predecessor as speaker, did not seem to be under immediate , from the post. The caucus threat, at least not in the House of played a key role in the demise of the Representatives he leads. healthcare bill. Ryan chose to make health- Ryan’s long-time news media nemesis, care reform the first target on a list of leg- the website Breitbart, said Republicans islative goals for the new Republican- were “openly discussing” finding a majority Congress. He admitted on Friday replacement for him after he pulled a bill that he was disappointed by the outcome. to roll back Obamacare from the House Republicans faced resistance to the health- floor just minutes before an intensely care bill from both conservatives and mod- awaited final vote. The Breitbart article erates, making the process of winning pas- did not quote anyone by name. In the sage difficult for the leadership. House, just after the bill was pulled, sever- Republican Representative Joe Barton, al lawmakers brushed aside suggestions asked about the impact of Friday’s loss on PHILADELPHIA: Stacy Biscardi searches the grounds of Mount Carmel Cemetery for a relatives’ grave in Philadelphia. Volunteers helped that the failure spelled trouble for Ryan, Ryan, told reporters: “The speaker is a clean up and restore the Jewish cemetery where vandals damaged hundreds of headstones. — AP the 2012 Republican vice presidential can- human being. He’s not Superman.” didate, who many have speculated has Republican Representative Barry presidential ambitions. Loudermilk, who backed the healthcare Jews, Israelis fear fallout Ryan, 47, has been speaker since bill, said he didn’t think the loss weakened October 2015. Under the law, he is next in the speaker’s hand. One Republican law- line to the presidency after Vice President maker who has been considered potential . Republican Representative speaker material, Representative Jeb from bomb hoax arrest Justin Amash, a harsh critic of the ill-fated Hensarling of Texas, effusively praised healthcare bill, told reporters, “We can do Ryan, saying he had shown “phenomenal better with the legislative process.” But, he leadership.” “It is my hope that we can Jewish teen accused of masterminding anti-Semitic threats added, “Nobody is talking about” trying to regroup and rally behind him (Ryan) and oust Ryan as speaker. Amash had dis- the president as a conference to deliver on JERUSALEM: Israel’s arrest of a Jewish teenager Their heads are going to be blown off,” one of States, where the FBI in early March arrested a paragingly dubbed the Republican health- our promise” to dismantle Obamacare, accused of masterminding dozens of anti- the threats read, according to a recording former journalist suspected of making bomb care bill “Obamacare 2.0,” after Democratic Hensarling said in a statement. — Reuters Semitic threats could encourage racism and obtained by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. threats to Jewish community centers and institu- ease pressure on US President Donald Trump to Israel’s Haaretz newspaper said Friday the tions. He was allegedly cyberstalking an ex-girl- tackle anti-Semitism, Jewish groups have net started to tighten after a threat in New friend, using her name to make the threats. warned. Far-right groups claimed vindication Zealand in 2016, with police identifying the IP The Daily Stormer, a prominent anti-Semitic that attacks previously blamed on rightwingers address as originating from Israel. Using an website that had long alleged such threats were and alleged hatred resulting from Trump’s elec- antenna, the suspect allegedly accessed other a Jewish plot, has claimed vindication. Alt-right tion may actually have been carried out by a people’s computers to commit the crimes, the website Breitbart News, formerly run by Trump’s young Jewish American Israeli. newspaper said, leading police to question a chief strategist Steve Bannon, also saw vindica- Jewish organizations and Israeli media said number of innocent suspects before eventually tion, but for Trump. “When the president sug- the arrest was likely to boost conspiracy theo- netting him. His alleged motive remains gested that some of the anti-Semitic hate ries, while others worried it would weaken unknown. His father has also been arrested, crimes could be hoaxes, the (leftwing) responses to a rise in anti-Semitic attacks in the with their next court hearing set for March 30. Huffington Post claimed he was echoing ‘white US. More details emerged Friday about the sus- nationalists and far-right conspiracy theorists,’” pect, who holds dual Israeli American citizen- Jewish threats it wrote. “However, the arrests thus far suggest ship, though identifying details are subject to a The discussion Friday turned to the impact of that most of the threats were indeed hoaxes.” gag order. He was arrested Thursday in Israel the arrests, with Trump’s response to anti- “The US Jewish leadership owes @POTUS an and accused of making dozens of anti-Semitic Semitism at the forefront. More than 150 threats apology,” Marc Zell, vice-president of bomb threats in the United States and else- have been carried out against Jewish institu- Republicans Overseas, tweeted. where, including one against a major airline. tions in America since the start of the year. At US Jewish organizations have tried to down- His lawyer said he is 18 and suffers a brain some locations swastikas were scrawled on walls play the political fallout, saying the arrest did not tumor that may cloud his judgment. His health and cemeteries desecrated. It is not known what end legitimate fears. “No arrests have been made prevented him attending public school or doing percentage of the threats the teenager is alleged in three cemetery desecrations or a series of oth- mandatory military service, she said. Over the to have been involved with. Trump received sig- er anti-Semitic incidents involving swastika graf- House Speaker past two to three years, Israeli police said he car- nificant criticism from Jewish Americans for his fiti and hate fliers,” the Anti-Defamation League’s ried out a series of hoax threats from his family perceived slow response to the uptick. CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. But home in southern Israel. In February 2015, he is He even suggested some of the threats might Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice president of Immigrants find sanctuary alleged to have made a bomb threat against be false to discredit his movement. He later the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Delta Airlines, forcing a plane to carry out an explicitly condemned anti-Semitic threats. Organizations, told The Jerusalem Post the arrest in Austin Church network emergency landing. “In a short time, a large Trump-supporting far-right websites hailed the in Israel posed a risk “that people won’t take the number of Jews are going to be slaughtered. arrest in Israel as well as a hoax case in the United ongoing concerns seriously”. — AFP AUSTIN: Senior Minister Meg Barnhouse Church in Austin has provided sanctuary to knows she’ll need beds, a dresser, chairs Guatemalan immigrant Hilda Ramirez and and a mirror to make the classroom at the her 10-year-old son, Ivan, for more than a First Unitarian Universalist Church of year . “Opening our arms to our neighbors Sacramento man arrested in Austin feel more like a home for a mother goes without question.” and her young daughter who are still deciding whether they will become the Sensitive areas latest immigrants seeking sanctuary from Pastor Laura Walter’s small killing of 2 adults, 2 juveniles deportation by moving into a church. It Presbyterian congregation in Bee Cave, would be the second time Barnhouse’s 12 miles west of Austin, hopes her church SACRAMENTO: Police arrested a 56-year-old man ated with an apartment near the University of San Oliva as an office technician since 2014. The sin- congregation had offered sanctuary. She can expand the network to reach immi- who works for the state Friday on suspicion that Francisco, six blocks from where police found gle-story beige home with sculpted shrubbery was hesitant in 2015 because of the grant communities outside city limits. he killed two adults and two children in a quiet him. The building is in a nice neighborhood, but is where the bodies were found has a basketball unknown legal and insurance risks, but They are still discussing whether the Northern California neighborhood. Authorities worn and run down. There was no answer at the hoop in a driveway that police blocked with yel- this time she agreed immediately. small church has room to offer shelter or did not release the names of the victims, but door, though a light remained on inside. low crime scene tape. It’s located in a tree-lined There is growing fear in the city’s immi- whether they could get a permit to build friends and relatives of a young family that lived The California Employment Development residential neighborhood of neatly maintained grant community as President Donald a temporary shower. “Our faith calls us to in the Sacramento house feared the worst. Department, which administers the state’s unem- homes near a church. Police have not said when Trump’s immigration and executive orders live this out,” Walters said. “In the near Rita Munoz, who lives in the neighborhood, ployment checks, said it has employed Vasquez- or how the victims were killed. —AP go into effect. And as more than 50 Austin future we’ll be at the very least helping said her grandchildren played with an 11-year-old area residents were detained in US support refugees and asylum seekers.” boy and 14-year-old girl who lived with their Immigration and Customs Enforcement The churches are relying on a 2011 ICE mother in the house. Munoz said her neighbor’s deportation raids last month, a growing policy directive telling agents to avoid mother arrived at the house shortly after the bod- number of churches in the Austin “sensitive areas” such as churches, hospi- ies were found Thursday and was heard crying Sanctuary Network are volunteering to tals and schools when conducting depor- “Oh my gosh, my only baby. My grandbabies are offer physical shelter or support to tation actions under most circumstances. all gone,” after she learned what happened. churches that do. The Austin Sanctuary Federal immigration officials said that poli- Later Munoz said she overheard the woman Network has broadened in the last year cy is still in effect, but recent immigration say: “I told her not to go back to him.” Sacramento from a handful of churches and advocates arrests around the US, including inside police declined to discuss the suspect’s relation- to more than two dozen congregations courthouses, are increasing fears. ship with the victims and said they haven’t deter- and religious groups, three labor unions, Austin, a liberal enclave in a conserva- mined a motive. “It’s a horrible thing,” Munoz said. several nonprofit groups and dozens of tive state, has had a strong base of immi- Police originally detained Salvador Vasquez-Oliva individual volunteers. gration activists for years in opposition to in San Francisco about 90 miles (145 kilometers) This mirrors the loosely organized a previous sheriff, who cooperated with away on Thursday afternoon and formally arrest- national sanctuary movement that has ICE requests to hold inmates for possible ed him Friday morning. He was being held in the grown to more than 800 churches and deportation. During the city’s involve- Sacramento County Jail, police spokesman Sgt. congregations, with a good portion of ment in the Secure Communities Bryce Heinlein said. those joining since Trump was elected. “It’s Program 7/87/8- a federal-local partner- The four victims were discovered Thursday bewildering for people at this point. It’s like ship on deportation ended in 2014 by the morning when police broke into the home after a trying to repair furniture when the house is Obama administration - an average of 19 relative reported that something might be on fire,” said Pastor Jim Rigby, whose con- people were deported from Travis County wrong. Vasquez-Oliva was quickly singled out by gregation at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian each week. — AP investigators on Thursday. Police said he is from SACRAMENTO: Investigators gather outside a home where four people were found dead, in Sacramento, but records show he is also is associ- Sacramento, Calif. A suspect is being held in San Francisco. — AP