Hassan Ahmad Profile picture
Aug 4, 2018 10 tweets 5 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
We are having oral argument in our case against @Umich to unseal the #TantonPapers:

Court of Appeals of Michigan
3020 W Grand Ave, 14th Floor
Detroit MI 48202

on Wednesday, August 15, 2018 at 11 AM.
Behind modern players like Kris Kobach, Otis Graham, Jeff Sessions, Steven Miller, and Steve Bannon is a trifecta of anti-immigrant organizations: FAIR, NumbersUSA, and CIS. All three of these organizations stem from the same man: Dr. John Tanton.

patriotnotpartisan.com/immigration/wh…
Tanton donated his papers from 1960 to 2007 to @UMich, provided that 11 boxes would be closed to access until 4/6/2035. I sued to get access now–public documents can't be insulated from FOIA just because U of M promised its donor that they'd be hidden.

freep.com/story/news/201…
Bans, raids, family separation, stoking xenophobia and hate of refugees? These policy initiatives trace back to FAIR and, ultimately, Dr. Tanton.

thedailybeast.com/trump-making-n…
What's in the boxes?

Things like FAIR's meeting minutes, Tanton's interactions with the eugenicist Pioneer Fund, and folders on the #WITAN conferences (where his racist views were first made widely known).

And how he got people to give him money.

splinternews.com/the-eugenicist…
The groups Tanton founded and/or nurtured - FAIR, CIS, and NumbersUSA - have collectively stalled meaningful immigration reform for decades. The #TantonPapers will shine a light onto the foundations of the anti-immigrant movement, as well as its strategic plans and key players.
Like many Americans, I am horrified at the cruelty of this administration and their systematic attacks on our institutions, our people, and our heritage. I'm busy putting out fires every day.

We have to know where their flamethrower is. And sunlight is a damn good disinfectant.
The #TantonPapers will help us understand the origins of the groups currently informing White House immigration policy, and how their thought evolved to generate the current administration's policies, including the #MuslimBan, ICE raids, and family separation.
FOIA is about transparency. I am dismayed that a public institution like the @UMich, devoted to the pursuit of knowledge, is obstructing the truth about Dr. Tanton.

We have a right to see what’s in the Tanton Papers, and we're not waiting until 2035.
With Attorney Philip Ellison @olcplc, we are looking forward to establishing that a public institution cannot contract its way around FOIA.

Especially when the hidden documents affect the lives of millions. #SunlightDisinfects #WhatAreTheyHiding

hmalegal.com/blawg/tantonfo…

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More from @HMAesq

Oct 4, 2018
@FAIRImmigration, founded by Dr. John Tanton, is a mouthpiece of white nationalist rhetoric. But it's more than that: it injects its foul ideology into actual policy.

One (latest) example: Temporary Protected Status, or TPS. Read what a federal judge found:

#SaveTPS
On p29 of the decision, the Court gives yet another example of Acting Secy Elaine Duke, who is supposed to make a dispassionate assessment of conditions on the ground in determining TPS eligibility, said "this conclusion [to end TPS] is the result of an America first view..."
Curious, because America was founded on ideals of welcoming the forcibly displaced. I'm not sure what "American first" has to do with terminating TPS.

If the White House is influencing the decision, we have a problem, because the White House has made A LOT of racist statements.
Read 13 tweets
Sep 28, 2018
Feeling drained after the #KavanaughHearings? I've been thinking about why. Objectively, there are far worse injustices going on even as Kavanaugh spoke.

Sure, there's the out of sight out of mind factor. Most injustice goes unreported; yesterday's hearing was not that.
But there was something distinctive about the hearing. It was a rare exposure of several different vectors of underreported injustice, concentrated into one episode.
We hear stories of sexual assault all the time. Or oppression. Abuser protection. Entitlement. Privilege. Character assassination. Lip service to the oppressed. Trauma. Legalized discrimination.

Rarely do we get to see it all in one day, before hundreds of millions of people
Read 10 tweets
Sep 25, 2018
This administration continues to target aspiring American communities, one by one. DACA revocation, TPS de-designation, changing asylum laws, the Muslim Ban...

What about Indians?... qz.com/india/1400398/…
Once again, the administration regurgitates rhetoric spewed by nativists, and with H-4 work permit revocation, they get an added "bonus" - getting to undo something Obama put in place. Yes, this is what they base their policies on.
But I also wanted to say something about the new public charge rule that greatly expands ineligibility grounds for green cards, which will also play into this attack on the Indian-American community.

This is an attempt to backdoor the RAISE Act into law.
Read 6 tweets
Sep 24, 2018
Well this is curious. Apparently @FAIRImmigration believes I am a paid operative of "state-owned propaganda outlet" @ajplus to meddle in 2018 midterm elections.

Why? For this video I did calling FAIR out as driven by white nationalism:

I'm paid? News to my wallet; I thought I was just doing a public service.

Here's FAIR's press release:

prnewswire.com/news-releases/…
They accuse me of "spreading malicious disinformation in what is a clear attempt to influence the upcoming midterm election." I'm flattered they think so highly of me.

Entirely different, of course, from FAIR's statements influencing lawmakers here:

fairus.org/press-releases…
Read 11 tweets
Sep 24, 2018
There already is a wall, folks.

More effective than any physical barrier on the southern border. Keeps people out before they can even begin their journey.

You can't fly over it or tunnel underneath it. You can't sneak around it, either. And it's much, much harder to tear down.
It's the combined bureaucracy of several different agencies that keeps people out. Physical barriers are a small slice of the pie of exclusion.

But with due process, there is sometimes a way through. Perfectly legal, not unlike carving out a nice little door for yourself.
Today, a green card for our North African client was approved after a 4 year delay. He had been apart from his US citizen wife since 2013, and even though they followed the law to the T, repeatedly told they just needed "one more thing," the visa remained stuck.
Read 6 tweets
Sep 22, 2018
It's Saturday, but there's no day off of this administration's oppression of aspiring Americans... especially the poor.

Most immigrants have always had to prove they're not a public charge: it's been the law for over 100 years.
But the administration now wants to greatly expand what a public charge is...meaning the types of public funds an aspiring American can lawfully use.

And also be able to deny green cards based on an officer's belief of an immigrant's likelihood at becoming a public charge.
I gave this example in a piece I wrote for @qz:
Read 11 tweets

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