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Among the first set of subpoenas issued by the House Select Committee on Jan. 6 back in September, the one issued to Trump advisor and professional fascist Steve Bannon has gotten the most attention. That’s because Bannon’s refusal to testify was followed by a vote, first in the committee and later before the full House, to hold him in contempt of Congress. A motion to that effect was referred to the Department of Justice on October 21, and then waiting for the DOJ to do something became the nation’s most frustrating pastime. 

But Bannon wasn’t the only recipient in round one. The other members of the un-fabulous four were Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows, former deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, and former  Devin Nunes aide operating way above his abilities as Pentagon chief of staff, Kash Patel. Since these folks haven’t had their name run up the line to set in queue behind Bannon, it may seem that nothing is happening and that the odds of their ever appearing before the Committee are decidedly on the “none” side of a scale running up to “slim.”

According to The Washington Post, that’s not the case. In particular, Meadows has been “engaged” with the committee’s staff in an effort to “negotiate the terms of his deposition and turning over of documents.” Which sounds like something … until it’s immediately followed by concerns about  “the pace of these discussions.” That makes it seem less like Meadows is attempting to negotiate in good faith and much more like he’s merely playing with the committee in an attempt to stop them from taking even the ineffective steps so far applied to Bannon.

On Thursday evening, White House Deputy Counsel Jonathan Su made it exceedingly clear that in no way would President Joe Biden be stepping in to shield Meadows with some form of executive privilege.

“Consistent with President Biden’s determination that an assertion of privilege is not justified with respect to testimony and documents relating to these particular subjects, he has determined that he will not assert executive privilege with respect to your client’s deposition testimony on these subjects, or any documents your client may possess that bear on them.”

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Tomorrow marks the close of the climate summit COP26 and, with that, a final agreement—hopefully—adopted by all 197 parties who’ve helped draft the document. At its present stage, the agreement has already faced pushback from countries like Saudi Arabia and a coalition of nations known as the Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDC), including China and India.

Unsurprisingly, many countries that prioritize oil and gas’ profitability are reticent to phase out fossil fuels. For instance, LMDC takes issue with the entire mitigation section of the agreement, which explicitly calls for accelerated phasing out of “coal and subsidies for fossil fuels.” Though the group claims the section places an undue burden on developing countries, two of its 22 members are responsible for the world’s most and third-most carbon emissions.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres doesn’t appear at all hopeful about what will be included in the final language of the agreement. Speaking with the Associated Press on Thursday, Guterres warned of a worst-case scenario of a watered-down agreement being adopted for the sake of adoption. According to Guterres, the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is “on life support.”

“When you are on the verge of the abyss, it’s not important to discuss what will be your fourth or fifth step,” Guterres told AP. “What’s important to discuss is what will be your first step. Because if your first step is the wrong step, you will not have the chance to do a search to make a second or third one.”

The COP26 agreement fails to reinforce the conference’s goals of requiring rich countries to pledge billions in climate aid for developing nations and those most impacted by climate change and halving emissions by 2030. During a speech on Thursday, Guterres praised some of the progress made throughout the conference, including deforestation pledges and work from non-state actors. Still, Guterres said the efforts were “far from enough.”

Guterres also announced the establishment of an expert group meant to oversee the work of companies combatting climate change. “We need actions if commitments are to pass the credibility test,” the UN Secretary-General said. “We need to hold each other accountable—governments, non-state actors, and the civil society—because only together can we keep 1.5 degrees within reach and the equitable and resilient world we live.”

Activists agree that world cooperation is key, but feel that COP26 is far from enacting meaningful steps to combat climate change. The youth-led grassroots group “Fridays for Future” and others have called for the adoption of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty—which 17 cities and regional governments have already endorsed, along with hundreds of organizations and more than 132,000 individuals—far more than the 500 lobbyists sent to COP26 on behalf of dozens of fossil fuel companies. The treaty calls for ending oil, gas, and coal production expansion, phasing out the existing production of fossil fuels, and ensuring equitable solutions are adopted that “enable people and communities across the globe to flourish.”

Guterres, for his part, is on board with many of the demands of activists, especially when it comes to treating this issue like the pressing existential threat that it is. “For me, it is clear it is a climate emergency. I have asked all member states to declare it, and I will be making sure that we mobilize the whole of the UN system based on the concept of a climate emergency,” he told AP.

A key way the US can respond to climate change with the same sense of urgency is by passing the Build Back Better Act, which allows for sweeping investments in green and renewable initiatives as well as programs that work to protect and reinforce the ecosystems we hold dear. Call on lawmakers to do the right thing and pass the Build Back Better Act before it’s too late.

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Nearly 4,500 current and former U.S. military service members, as well as family members, will be sworn in as U.S. citizens as part of Veterans Day 2021. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said in a statement that it’s holding more than 90 ceremonies this week, including a Maryland ceremony presided over by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

“They’re all veterans or active-duty members of the military representing all services,” WMAR Baltimore reported. “They come from Cameroon, China, El Salvador, Germany, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal. and South Korea.”

“The willingness to serve in our armed forces before you become U.S. citizens is truly a remarkable example of devotion to country and our highest ideals,” Mayorkas wrote in a tweet on Wednesday. “On the eve of #VeteransDay, we congratulate you for everything that you have done and continue to do for all of us.” Among the new citizens this week was Godson Vondee, originally from Ghana. 

“Becoming a citizen means so much to me because it puts me in a position to give back to the country,” Vondee said in a VA post. “I decided to join the Army to advance in my career and to serve this great country. Also, to be a better example to my daughter to let her know she can be anything as long as she puts her mind to it since I joined at a later age.”

The New American Economy Research Fund said in 2019 that nearly 900,000 immigrants have served or are currently serving in the U.S. military. The organization estimated that more than 190,000 were active members as of 2017. “The United States has a long history of encouraging non-citizens to join its Armed Forces. From the Revolutionary War through the 1840s, half of the U.S. military’s recruits were foreign-born.”

Thousands of current and former military service members were welcomed as new U.S. citizens as the Biden administration has also announced formal plans to return deported veterans and family members to the U.S.

“Together with our partner the Department of Veterans Affairs, we are committed to bringing back military service members, veterans, and their immediate family members who were unjustly removed and ensuring they receive the benefits to which they may be entitled,” Mayorkas said this past summer. “Today we are taking important steps to make that a reality.” Some deported veterans have since been able to briefly cross into the U.S. to access the novel coronavirus vaccine. Others, like Agustín Abarca, have come back for good. Deported nearly a decade ago, he became a U.S. citizen last month.

“Once I was approved for citizenship, I left the office in shock. I screamed and my family hugged me; my friends, my lawyer. It was a historic day in my life,” Abarca told Arizona Republic. 

This week, California U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla introduced legislation to prevent the deportation of noncitizen veterans. Support for and passage of that bill should be a no-brainer. But so was COVID-19 relief, and every single Republican still voted against it. It’s also unknown exactly how many veterans have been deported because Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials haven’t properly tracked it, a nonpartisan government watchdog said in 2019. Abhorrent. Bring them back home—and make them the U.S. citizens they deserve to be.

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A 10-year-old Black girl with autism took her own life on Saturday after the child allegedly dealt with prolonged bullying by both students and teachers at a majority-white Utah school, her family told Deseret News. Isabella Faith Tichenor, who her family called “Izzy,” was bullied for being Black and autistic at Foxboro Elementary School in North Salt Lake, the child’s family attorney Tyler Ayres told the newspaper. Ayres said Isabella’s mother, Brittany Tichenor-Cox, reported the bullying “multiple times, and no action was taken.” He added that the child’s siblings have been called the N-word this year. “The offending student was not disciplined in any way,” Ayres said.

The family said in a statement that Isabella was an “easy target” at the school, a preschool through sixth-grade campus with some 824 students—only 2% of whom are Black, according to data from the Utah State Board of Education. Isabella’s family said she was especially a target “after a teacher joined in mocking” the child. “As any parent would, we reported this abuse to her teachers, the school administration, and the district administration. Nothing. Nothing was done to protect Izzy,” the family said. “Children did not have their behavior corrected, so the torment of this child continued day after day.”

Tichenor-Cox told The Salt Lake Tribune that, just after the school year started, she asked her daughter how school was going. Izzy told her she didn’t think her teacher liked her. “She doesn’t say ‘hi’ to me. She says ‘hi’ to all the other kids,” the mother recounted her daughter saying. When Tichenor-Cox called the school, she said she didn’t get a response. 

In the next incident, Izzy’s teacher told the class that some students smelled bad. Tichenor-Cox said Izzy’s classmates used that comment to target Izzy, threatening her on the playground and telling her she stunk because of the color of her skin. Tichenor-Cox cried as she recounted her daughter taking air freshener to school as perfume. She again called the school district, and eventually got to talk to the teacher who said: “I’m not going to work it out for them. I let them work it out.”

The Davis School District said in a statement obtained by Deseret News that it is investigating bullying at the school. “We, like everyone, are devastated by the death of this child,” the district said.

“Our hearts go out to the family. Foxboro Elementary has worked extensively with the family and will continue to provide help to them and others impacted by this tragedy. We take all incidents and reports of bullying seriously.

”At this point, the incident we are aware of involved another student. The teacher and administration responded quickly and appropriately. As with all allegations of bullying, our investigation will continue.”

Foxboro Elementary School is part of the Davis School District, which was the subject of a federal probe revealing “serious and widespread racial harassment” by students and staff. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) reviewed more than 200 incident files containing allegations of racial harassment and other discrimination, according to findings the DOJ released in September. “The Department’s investigation uncovered systemic failures in the District’s handling of complaints of racial student-on-student and staff-on-student harassment, discipline of Black students, and refusal to allow Black students to form student groups,” the DOJ wrote. 

The agency reported that the district was “deliberately indifferent to known racial harassment,” including white students repeatedly calling Black students the N-word. “We learned of incidents in which white students referred to Black students as dirty, asked why they did not wash their skin, and commented that their skin looked like feces,” the DOJ reported. “White students also called Asian-American students pejorative slurs, such as ‘yellow’ and ‘squinty’ and told them to ‘Go back to China.’”

Asian American students also account for 2% of the student population, while white students account for 70%. Hispanic students represent 17% of students.

The DOJ added in its report:

Our investigation found that the District responded to these incidents in a manner that was clearly unreasonable in light of known circumstances. The Department found that the District disregarded student witnesses who corroborated allegations and took no or minimal action to eliminate the hostile environment. For example, one school received a complaint that a teacher constantly ridiculed a Hispanic student and taunted him for working at a taco truck (though the student did not). An administrator interviewed other students who confirmed that the teacher “openly picks on certain students.” Yet, the administrator took no steps to remedy the hostile environment. Where there was a response to harassment or retaliation for reporting harassment, it was “minimalist,” Spencer, 2016 WL10592223 at *4, and staff remained in charge of educating or supervising the very students they degraded through racial harassment. In response to one incident, the District’s “investigation” was designed to vindicate its staff rather than identify and respond to harassment.

Read the full report below:

It is unclear if Isabella’s family is planning a lawsuit against the school. “We are investigating the school’s lack of response but cannot say more about it at this time,” Ayres said.

Brittany Tichenor-Cox, sobbing through a news conference covered Monday by Deseret News, said that she and other family members would stand up for children who, like Izzy, have been bullied. “Even though my baby is gone, I’m going to make sure that I stand for Izzy and I’m going to make sure for voices that can’t be heard like hers, that this will never happen again to any kid that is her age, teenager or adult,” Tichenor-Cox said. “I don’t care who this is for. Nobody should have to go through that.”

If you or someone else is in crisis, call the 24-hour national suicide prevention lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. 

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Kyle Rittenhouse’s murder trial appears on the verge of wrapping up, but on Thursday—Veterans Day—as criticism over the propriety and impartiality of presiding Judge Bruce Schroeder reached a fever pitch, Schroeder kicked off proceedings by instructing jurors to clap for the only veteran in the room: an expert called by Rittenhouse’s defense.

The exchange unfolded when the 18-year-old’s defense attorney called Dr. John Black to testify as a use of force expert.

Rittenhouse is accused of shooting three men—Gaige Grosskreutz, Joseph Rosenbaum, and Anthony Huber—with a Smith & Wesson AR-15 style .223 rifle as protests unfolded last August in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Only Grosskreutz survived the contact with Rittenhouse. Huber and Rosenbaum died.

The protests were a response to the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, who after taking seven bullets to the back from white Kenosha police officer Rusten Sheskey, is now paralyzed.

Rittenhouse has maintained he shot Huber, Rosenbaum, and Grosskreutz in self-defense. Prosecutors say the Antioch, Illinois, native was effectively acting as a vigilante.

Rittenhouse stalked the streets of Kenosha last August with other armed men, video evidence has shown. Though curfew had come and gone on that fateful night, prosecutors say Rittenhouse was still out and got into a clash with people gathered at a nearby car dealership.

Rosenbaum was unarmed but moved toward the teenager, throwing an object at him—a plastic bag—before Rittenhouse opened fire. In court Wednesday, as Rittenhouse testified on his own behalf between animated sobs, he said he thought the item thrown by Rosenbaum was a chain.

As Rosenbaum lay dying, a journalist told prosecutors in a court filing last year that Rittenhouse made a call on his cellphone and was heard saying “I just killed somebody” before running from the scene.

After the shooting and before Rittenhouse could get far, a group began to chase him. Rittenhouse tripped and fell and at that time, prosecutors say, Anthony Huber had approached Rittenhouse in an attempt to take the AR-15 style rifle away from the teenager. Huber did so with one hand while holding his skateboard in the other. Video appears to show the skateboard hitting Rittenhouse in the shoulder during the exchange. Rittenhouse then shot Huber.

Rittenhouse put Grosskreutz, who was holding a handgun, in his sights just moments later and shot him in the arm. Grosskreutz fled, screaming out for a medic as Rittenhouse walked away.

During Thursday’s proceedings, Black testified it took roughly two and three quarters of a second from the time a man at the protests, Joshua Ziminski, fired a gun into the air and Rittenhouse discharged his weapon.

Defense attorney Corey Chirafisi also called eyewitness Drew Hernandez to testify Thursday. Hernandez is a self-described “professional commentator” who now works for the right-wing outlet Real America’s Voice. He captured footage on the night of the shootings and has regularly characterized protesters as “violent rioters” online; he did so again in court Thursday.

At one point, lead prosecutor Thomas Binger asked if Real America’s Voice was biased. The defense objected, prompting Schroeder to nix the question altogether. Binger proceeded to ask if the video captured by Hernandez could be biased against protesters since he perceived them as “violent rioters.”

This story is developing.

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There can’t be a Republican panic/cynical fearmongering campaign these days without Texas Gov. Greg Abbott getting involved, and book-banning is no exception. On Wednesday, Abbott released his third letter of the month on the issue of what he’s calling “pornography” in schools. Unsurprisingly, his examples of pornography have been focused on LGBTQ content.

Abbott first directed the Texas Association of School Boards to find out how much “pornography or other inappropriate content” is in public schools, and to purge it. When the Texas Association of School Boards let him know that it doesn’t have the authority to do that, Abbott turned to the Texas Education Agency, Texas State Library and Archives Commission, and State Board of Education. 

”The Texas Association of School Boards has attempted to wash its hands clean of the issue by abdicating any and all responsibility in the matter,” Abbott wrote on Nov. 8. “Given this negligence, the State of Texas now calls on you to do what the Texas Association of School Boards refuses to do.” (He couldn’t just admit that he asked a group with no censorship authority to do his censorship for him.)

Abbott called on the Texas Education Agency, Texas State Library and Archives Commission, and State Board of Education “to immediately develop statewide standards to prevent the presence of pornography and other obscene content in Texas public schools, including in school libraries.” Providing pornography to children under 18, he wrote, is illegal. What he didn’t offer was any evidence that there is pornography in Texas schools, if we follow the generally accepted definition that pornography is material made for sexual stimulation, let alone that there is obscene content in the schools—obscenity has a legal meaning, and that includes that it is not just lewd or offensive but lacks literary, artistic, or other merit.

Abbott did offer two examples of content he objects to, and what do you know, both of them are LGBTQ books. One, Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House, is a memoir about an abusive lesbian relationship. The other, Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer, is a memoir in graphic novel form. As Gender Queer has become a frequent target in the right’s attacks on books in schools, Kobabe wrote in The Washington Post that the audience e originally wrote the book for was eir parents, who didn’t understand eir gender identity.

But there’s another important audience, Kobabe wrote: “Queer youth are often forced to look outside their own homes, and outside the education system, to find information on who they are. Removing or restricting queer books in libraries and schools is like cutting a lifeline for queer youth, who might not yet even know what terms to ask Google to find out more about their own identities, bodies, and health.”

That is, of course, part of the point. The Republican push to remove LGBTQ books and books by authors of color from schools is about limiting who kids see as fully human, what kids understand about justice and U.S. history, and what identities kids come to understand are available to them.

Abbott wasn’t done with two letters, though. On November 10, he followed up by directing the Texas Education Association to “investigate any criminal activity in our public schools involving the availability of pornography. During this investigation, I ask the agency to refer any instance of pornography being provided to minors under the age of 18 for prosecution to the fullest extent of the law.”

The Texas Education Association does not have police to investigate this alleged crime. And while Abbott is correct that showing kids pornography is illegal in Texas, one defense against prosecution is “having scientific, educational, governmental, or other similar justification” for doing so. We’re not talking about pornography here by any means, but if we were, teachers and librarians offering educational material would be safe.

Both Gender Queer and In the Dream House are critically acclaimed books that have won awards. That definitely doesn’t matter to Republicans purging books. In Virginia, Glenn Youngkin’s successful gubernatorial campaign was powered partly by an ad that never admitted it was targeting Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Beloved. In Kansas, one of the books the Goddard school district is pulling off library shelves is August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Fences. There is no award, no critical acclaim enough to prevent Republicans from wanting to see it removed from schools, with howls of “pornography” and even threats of book-burning if the book in question doesn’t line up with far-right views of whose life deserves to be written about, to be understood, to be valued.

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If you think America doesn’t have systemic racism issue, then you’re not paying attention to the news—or history.

As the world watches no fewer than three separate trials involving violence incited by white nationalists unfold across the nation, laying bare the deficient legal system in America and the ever-present deep racial injustice, a Texas teen has been arrested in connection with a fire at an Austin synagogue. 

Franklin Barrett Sechriest was arrested Wednesday, accused of arson, a first-degree felony, for reportedly starting a fire at Congregation Beth Israel on Sunday, Oct. 31. He is being held on a $100,000 bond, according to an arrest affidavit in the case, ABC KVUE reports. 

The fire Sechriest allegedly lit was small and set on the exterior of the synagogue. No one was injured. Damage is estimated to be around $25,000, which includes the cost of repairing the structure’s ornate wooden front doors.

According to KVUE, Sechriest was seen on video surveillance driving into the parking lot to the synagogue in an SUV, possibly a 2017 Jeep Compass. He was carrying a five-gallon olive green jerry can. He then left, still carrying the container. Austin Fire Department arson investigators say they saw the flames ignite from four different camera angles.

The fire comes just a week after several anti-semitic incidents took place around Austin. 

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that on Oct. 24, members of the Goyim Defense League, a neo-Nazi group, hung “Vax the Jews” banners from an overpass near the local Jewish Community Center as well as several synagogues.

The Anti-Defamation League calls the group “a loose network of individuals connected by their virulent antisemitism.”

According to journalist and author Nate Thayer, Sechriest is a known member of the Goyim Defense League. 

Thayer points to camera footage that appears to be Sechriest. This followed by a photo of the alleged arsonist seen burning a Nazi swastika outside of Austin with at least 10 other members of the Goyim Defense League. And another photo of allegedly of Sechriest seen in a car on Halloween day harassing trick or treaters in Austin. The man in the passenger seat is wearing a hat with a swastika on it. 

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Sen. Joe Manchin’s people are making sure this holiday week for Congress doesn’t pass without King Joe making more pronouncements about why we can’t have nice things, like a climate change and human infrastructure package that starts to address racial, social, and economic inequality called Build Back Better. His people told Axios Wednesday that his “instinct” is to keep delaying President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan because of “red-hot inflation.”

He’s finding little back-up for that, even from professional economics troll Larry Summers, who’s been warning about inflation since March. Summers went on CNN Wednesday night to talk inflation again, of course, but he didn’t say anything Manchin wanted to hear. As far as the already passed hard infrastructure combined with BBB goes, “I think it’s fine,” Summers said. “The 10 years of the two spending bills together, A, are less than the one year of what they did last spring, and, B, unlike what they did last spring, are paid for by tax increases. So I don’t think that’s an inflation problem. I think a lot of it is vitally needed investments in the future of the country.”

When he says “last spring” he’s talking about the emergency COVID-19 relief package the reduced childhood hunger and kept the whole economy from crumbling under the weight of a global pandemic. So it is kind of a shock that he agrees with the 17 Nobel laureates in economics who support BBB. Or maybe it’s because he doesn’t want to look foolish in the face of 17 Nobel laureates endorsing the package. Either way, it gives Manchin—who is highly unlikely to ever be considered for a Nobel prize for anything—no cover whatsoever. That doesn’t mean he’s likely to give up his bullshit, but it makes him easier to isolate.

By the way, here’s what Joseph Stiglitz, on of those 17 economists, had to say on BBB. It’s important to have handy in this debate:

Some, however, have invoked fears of inflation as a reason to not undertake these investments. This view is short-sighted. These are importantly supply side measures, increasing the ability of more Americans to participate productively in the economy, helping to improve our low employment-working age population ratio. Significantly reducing the fraction of children growing up in poverty and giving these children access to pre-K and college education will reap large dividends in years to come. We need safe school buildings and bridges, and affordable child and elder care, whether inflation is 2% or 5%. With the investments being financed by tax increases, the inflationary impacts will be at most negligible—over the medium term outweighed by the supply side benefits; and their progressivity will help address one of the country’s critical problems, the growing economic divide.

The Build Back Better package will provide much needed support to a still-recovering economy, but it will accomplish much more than that. By meeting long-standing social needs, boosting long-term economic performance, and taking serious steps toward addressing the climate crisis we can already see unfolding, it would transform the U.S. economy to be more efficient, equitable, sustainable, and prosperous for the long run, without presenting an inflationary threat.

There are lots of reasons for the BBB to pass, and economic recovery remains a critical one. Given Manchin’s general stubbornness, it’s unclear that any of this could break through. But maybe, just maybe, the idea that continuing this argument makes him look stupid in front of his colleagues might do the trick.

Or he’ll stick with the billionaire Republican megadonors. He’s got Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone on his side, already planning 2024 reelection campaign fundraising. “I’m going to have one of the biggest fundraisers I’ve ever had for him,” Langone told CNBC. “He’s special. He’s precious. He’s a great American.”

Ugh. No wonder Manchin has such an insane ego. He’s got billionaires feeding it like that. And giving him money, of course. It’s not just Langone. Nelson Peltz, a big Trump donor says he calls Manchin every week to give him pep talks. “Joe is the most important guy in D.C. Maybe the most important guy in America today,” he told CNBC last month. “I call him every week and say, ‘Joe, you’re doing great. Stay tough. Stay tough, buddy.’ He’s phenomenal.”

Those Maserati types have to hang together, I guess. 

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have refused to allow Haitian asylum-seekers detained at a New Mexico detention facility access to legal services that could determine their futures in the U.S., a number of advocacy groups say. They believe at least 45 Haitians have been detained at Torrance County Detention Facility since the end of September.

“In addition to ICE’s denial of their access to legal support, local groups have observed court dockets for Black migrants from Haiti moving disproportionately fast, leading to unfair, rapid deportation orders,” groups continued.

This racist targeting is not isolated. In Florida last month, Black immigrants said that officials were selecting only non-Black immigrants for release as part of pandemic measures.

“Haitian detainees describe poor food, inadequate medical care, and mistreatment, common to Torrance and ICE detention centers nationwide, as well as insufficient access to information in Haitian Kreyol, which together amount to racist discrimination and violate even ICE’s own standards,” attorney Allegra Love, Innovation Law Lab, National Immigration Project, Haitian Bridge Alliance, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico, and the American Immigration Council said.

Among them is a 25-year-old who expressed fear about being returned to Haiti by officials. “If I don’t have an attorney, I think that they can deport me,” he said. He did not share his name out of fear of retaliation. “I don’t know what asylum is. I wasn’t allowed to speak. Nobody explained anything and they just told me I was supposed to have an attorney.” Advocates are willing, able, and ready to aid Haitian migrants in detention, but ICE is blocking them.

“For the last 42 days I have been begging ICE to provide us with information and access to the Haitian men detained at Torrance so we can provide them with critical pro-bono legal assistance and meeting resistance each step of the way,” Love said in the statement. “ICE is doing everything it can to deport these Haitian men without any semblance of due process. It’s racist, it’s wrong, and I am fed up with it.”

Advocates have issued a letter to ICE with a number of demands, including being provided with a list of all Haitian migrants detained at Torrance, access to these men, that pro bono legal support information in Haitian Kreyol be provided to these men, and that officials not deport anyone until they’ve been able to consult with someone.

“It is unconscionable for ICE to block access to legal counsel for these Haitian asylum seekers who have already suffered horrific treatment at the hands of the U.S. government just for seeking protection from harm,” ACLU of New Mexico staff attorney Rebecca Sheff said. “By rushing their cases the government seems determined to deport these men to Haiti, where they face abuse and potentially even death, without due process and in some instances before they have even had a chance to talk to an attorney or submit their asylum application.”

Advocates said many of the Haitian migrants at Torrance were detained at or near Del Rio, Texas. Advocates last month also filed a civil rights complaint about the mistreatment of Haitian asylum-seekers at the hand of officials, saying families were denied access to basics including water, food, and blankets. In detention, the complaint said individuals were then deprived of medical attention, leading to at least one miscarriage. One woman, Marjory, told detention officials of her pregnancy and requested medical attention, she was “blatantly ignored,” the complaint said. “Days later she suffered a miscarriage.” 

“The federal government confined Black families fleeing from Haiti in inhumane and life-threatening conditions for an unnecessarily and excessively long period of time,” said Lawyers for Civil Rights Staff Attorney Arielle Sharma. “These families came to the U.S. to seek safety, but instead were met with further despair.”

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As we honor our vets on this 2021 Veterans Day, consider supporting them in the businesses they’ve founded and the products they’ve created. It can’t be easy for many of them; as they say, they leave the military with emotional scars they may carry with them for a lifetime. 

Known as “the war to end all wars,” Veterans Day falls on Nov. 11 because it was the day of an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany. It went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. 

We’ve put together a list of some of the vet-owned businesses we love. 

1. Dope Coffee

Launched by Marine Corps veteran Michael Loyd Jr. in 2018, along with Stace and Chel Loyd, Dope Coffee “focuses on coffee-oriented products created by and for Black people and anyone interested in Black culture,” according to Daily Coffee News. 

Loyd says he first tasted specialty coffee courtesy of Green Bean Coffee at Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan not long after he enlisted in 2010.

After leaving Afghanistan, Loyd was stationed at Camp Pendelton in San Diego, California, where he bought and ran a small, drive-through coffee kiosk called Solar Cafe. “I learned the basics of the coffee game, and I saw that coffee can heal through conversation,” Loyd says in a LinkedIn post. 

After leaving the military in 2017, Loyd says he was “depressed, suicidal, and dealing with PTSD and barely holding on.” He says the racism he felt under Trump’s presidency was unlike anything he’d experienced. He and his wife Chel picked up and moved to an all-Black neighborhood in Atlanta to begin their life anew. 

Loyd started writing and producing hip-hop music under the stage name Creative Mike The Rapper. He explained the company’s beginnings to Forbes:

“Dope Coffee on day one…was going to be a counter-drug brand. It was like literally, let’s take a drug, which is coffee, well the caffeine in it, and let’s sell that and then let’s just teach more people in our communities to sell that, instead of drugs…but then it just started morphing…Black people, our culture is very ‘dope.’ Everything about it. So, when you take that word…it’s a loaded word to use…look at where we are today. I don’t think there’s any benefit to us having gone through [slavery] but if you look at it and see where we are today, I think it’s amazing.”

2. Pigeonly

Founded by Air Force veteran Frederick Hutson in 2013, this app has connected more than 300,000 incarcerated people to more than 1.5 million people “on the outside,” Verizon.com reports. And it has saved the families of inmates as much as $10 million annually in communication costs. 

While service 51 months in prison, Frederick learned that the $1.2 billion inmate communication industry created connections that were costly and complex. “It’s one of those things where you don’t really understand how it works until you experience it or someone you care about experiences it,” Hutson tells Verizon. 

Hutson says the emotional difference incarcerated people feel when they a letter or call from family means the world, so inmates can feel especially distraught when calls are more than the average utility bill or letters are lost or destroyed in the mail. 

In 2019, Pigeonly served 58,000 inmates and 76,000 loved ones across the nation. Families can use the flat rate of $18 for 300 minutes, equaling about 6 cents a minute, to talk with their inmates by phone, saving them nearly $100 a month on average for the same amount of time. 

“One of the problems I’m addressing is making poverty less expensive,” he says. “The truth is that some people are sent to jail simply because they can’t make $500 bail, then they lose their job because they are in jail.” That’s the start of an unbreakable cycle, now add in cutting off communication with family and loved ones, and the results can be lasting and emotionally damaging. 

“Building a company requires you to have a clear vision of where you want to go so you can manage long and short-term goals simultaneously. This is a skill I learned very early in my military career,” Hutson tells Forbes.

Pigeonly has grown since its inception and now offers users the option of uploading photos and letters from their mobile phones. Pigeonly can print and ship them in a way that meets each prison’s various mailing regulations. Families can also design personalized postcards and greeting cards in the app to be printed and sent.

“If you can’t stay in touch, who’s going to give you that couch to sleep on when you are released?” Frederick asks Verizon. “Who’s going to help you find that first job and drive you to the DMV to get your license again? People get lost in the system, and they get forgotten about until their release date comes, and they are thrown back on the street” without a support system.

3. Rumi Spice

The idea of Rumi Spice was born in March of 2013 when Army veteran Kimberly Jung was speaking with fellow veteran Keith Alaniz. Alaniz told Jung about a local saffron farmer he’d met when serving in Afghanistan. The man had a warehouse full of the pricy spice, but no buyers to sell to overseas. 

“I was very surprised to find out it grows the best in the climates of Afghanistan with hot winds and dry climate,” Jung told NPR’s The Salt. “So, I immediately thought, hey, this could be an awesome business opportunity.”

Jung and Alaniz teamed up with four friends, also veterans, and quickly realized that not only could they sell In the U.S., but while doing that, maybe they could create a market for saffron—a way to replace the poppy farmers were being forced to grow to fund the Taliban. 

“Without investment in agriculture, Afghan farmers have little prospects with shrinking land allotments – making them susceptible to the Taliban,” the group’s website reads. “Rumi Spice strives to change this dynamic.”

Since its foundation, Rumi has grown its offerings to sell such unique spices as black cumin, coriander, and fennel. Rumi also offers a wide array of spice blends. One of them is baharat, a Middle Eastern spice blend that includes the company’s black cumin along with black pepper, cassia, nutmeg, paprika, coriander, cardamom, and clove.

4. R. Riveter Handbags

Cameron Cruse and Lisa Bradley are military spouses who created a one-of-a-kind handbag company. The concept is that military spouses across the country fabricate the various parts of the handbags at home and then ship them to Georgia for assembly. 

“Each handbag features durable materials—from uniforms, tents, and blankets—sourced from government surplus or, when possible, directly from service members,” Bradley tells Southern Living. “Rosie the Riveter embodies everything that we stand for. Our mission is a bit more modern, but her spirit and ‘we can do it’ attitude still apply.”

Each military spouse is sent the leather and textiles they need to cut and dye. Once completed, pieces are sent to the home base in Georgia, where the items are stitched together. 

Each bag or wallet is stamped with a number corresponding to the name of a military spouse who created it. Their first names and duty stations are listed on the R. Riveter website.

5. Combat Flip Flops

Seattle native and Army Ranger veteran Matthew “Griff” Griffin was working as a government contractor in Afghanistan, setting up medical clinics, the day he toured a combat boot factory and saw a flip-flop thong punched through the sole of a combat boot. He tells ABC News he went back to his hotel room and registered the domain name CombatFlipFlops.com that night. 

“Our concept was to create flip-flops in a combat boot factory in Afghanistan,” Griffin tells ABC. 

“The one thing that I saw when I was traveling around to Asia, Africa, all throughout the Middle East, Persia, was that small businesses were really the sustainable driving factor,” he said.

The concept of not only making the flip flops using heavy-duty combat boot rubber but making them in Afghanistan turned out to be a lot more challenging than Griffin thought. After a couple of failed attempts, Griffin moved production to his garage in Seattle, where his co-founders Andy Sewrey, 42, and fellow soldier Donald Lee, 39, turned his garage into a factory and made 4,000 pairs of sandals themselves, and eventually moved production to Colombia. 

Today, the company has expanded beyond flip-flops and into sarongs and shemaghs at a women-run factor in Kabul, Afghanistan, where a portion of the proceeds go toward the education of women in secondary school.