February 14, 2019

Will Section 224(a) Upset the Budget Deal Apple Cart?

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Apparently the Senate is going to vote today on the budget bill, and I assume Mitch McConnell wouldn’t allow that to happen unless (a) he had 51 votes and (b) President Trump has said he’ll sign it. Does this mean our long national nightmare is finally over?

Maybe. But border hardliners are now pissed off about something entirely new: Section 224(a).

UAC stands for Unaccompanied Alien Child, and the hawks are claiming that this provides de facto amnesty for anyone who is, or might be, taking care of an immigrant child. Democrats, presumably, describe this as a way of preventing ICE from tearing families apart. I, personally, don’t have a strong view because I don’t know what the real-life effect of this provision would be.

But what matters is that conservatives are now manning the phone lines again. This follows a short period when many of them were shrugging from exhaustion and saying they’d be willing to just take the 55 miles of new fencing and fight for the rest of it later. Depending on how fast they can marshal their forces, this might affect either the Senate vote or Trump’s support for the bill—or both. Alternatively, maybe McConnell wants to bull this through fast before anyone upsets the apple cart. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: That was quick. Trump will sign the bill and then declare a national emergency that directs the Pentagon to build the wall. This will almost certainly get tied up in court for years. As for Section 224(a), Trump couldn’t care less. Sorry, hardliners. This is what you get when you back a racist moron.

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“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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