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File photo of would-be migrants waiting to disembark in Sicily. Photo: Ella Ide/AFP

It is not an experience he's keen to repeat but Carmelo Cuzzolino is resigned to the inevitable as stretched resources mean more merchant ships get caught up in the Mediterranean migrant crisis.

The veteran Italian seaman has just spent two testing days at the helm with more than 1,000 distressed African migrants crowded onto the tug boat he skippers in his role as head of security for a major oil platform in waters off troubled Libya.

"I've been a captain around here for 30 years, I've seen migrants go by... But this, this was a first" the 60-year-old told AFP in a phone interview from the southern Italian island of Sicily.

The Vos Thalassa, his 60-metre (200 foot) vessel, usually spends its time patrolling an oil field about 70 nautical miles off Libya.

On Friday afternoon he spotted a vessel carrying about 40 migrants, who were waving a white flag signalling distress, and when he contacted the Italian Coastguard, they asked him to intervene.

The coastguard said two patrol boats would soon arrive from the island of Lampedusa to recover the migrants.

INTERVIEW: The Italian doctor who has assisted every migrant arriving at Lampedusa

File photo of migrants at the port of Lampedusa. Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP

Instead, those boats rescued other migrants at risk of drowning, and brought them to Cuzzolino's boat before heading off for other rescue operations.

"At half past midnight I had 1,042 people aboard, including about 50 women, 15 children and seven bodies that were already in sealed bags when they brought them to me," he said.

He does not know how they died, but many of the migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean for Europe succumb to hypothermia or dehydration, choke on engine fumes, or are smothered on overcrowded vessels.

Some 3,400 migrants were rescued in the waters off Libya last Friday alone, bringing the total for last week to more than 10,000 people.

Boats filling up fast

Without food or water, the migrants packed on the Vos Thalassa's broad flat deck were on edge, and many became threatening and at times aggressive toward the 14 crew members.

"We barricaded ourselves inside," the captain said, letting only women and children enter to use the toilets.

An Italian coastguard ship, itself loaded with migrants, was able to drop off food and water on Saturday.

File photo of an Italian coastguard ship arriving at Lampedusa. Photo: Maura Seminara/AFP

But Italy's Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre had no more boats available, so the Vos Thalassa had no choice but to head for Sicily itself.

Global leaders, however, were still gathered on the east coast of the island for their G7 summit at Taormina. So Cuzzolino was told to chart a course to Palermo, in the northwest of the island, where he was finally able to unload his passengers on Sunday afternoon.

READ ALSO: Sicilian tourist town in lockdown and aid boats diverted ahead of G7 meet

It was 3:00 am by the time all the migrants were brought off the boat, and the captain and his crew then spent several hours cleaning up.

Italian media reported that police arrested a 39-year-old Moroccan wanted on suspicion of drug trafficking and a 22-year-old Nigerian accused by many on the ship of being a people trafficker.

Many of those onboard said they had crossed the Sahara in the back of refrigerated freight trucks before spending months at camps in Libya, often subjected to violent abuse by their handlers, according to the reports.

"Save lives at sea, bring 150 people to safety, feed and take care of them while waiting for someone to come and get them, this we can do," Cuzzolino said.

"But become a storage vessel for 48 hours, that's putting everyone's lives in danger: the boat, the crew and the migrants," he said.

With milder weather coming, though, encouraging even more migrants to attempt the perilous crossing, the captain knows that when the coastguard, military and NGO boats are full, the authorities will be calling again.

By Fanny Carrier

READ ALSO: 'They got the wrong man': Doubts linger over identity of trafficking suspect Photo: AFP

Read more:
'We barricaded ourselves in': Veteran Italian seaman speaks about ... - The Local Italy

posted at 6:01 pm on May 31, 2017 by Jazz Shaw

Time Magazine had yet another article out this week about the plight of the undocumented community (meaning illegal immigrants) and how terrible things have been ever since President Trump took office. It seems like they come up with a different angle every few days to try to generate sympathy for those who cross our borders in violation of the law and push the narrative that the new White House administration is a heartless pit of blackness on par with Mordor. This weeks message is a poorly documented record of how fears of deportation are causing some victims of domestic abuse to not report the crimes of their attackers out of fear of ICE finding out. Of course, no names or numbers are provided beyond a generalized dip in the total number of reports in particular areas.

Since President Trump took office, the hotlines of the Tahirih Justice Center in Houston, which advocates for victims of sexual and domestic violence, have been inundated with calls.

But the women and men reaching out arent just reporting instances of abuse. Executive Director Anne Chandler says callers queries center on one of Trumps biggest domestic priorities: immigration. During routine screening calls, those seeking helpfrom sex trafficking victims to those escaping abusehave asked lawyers if they will report them to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

One caller that I was handlingI was simply just trying to coordinate follow up with that client and explaining that I wasnt going to get to her matter for another week, Chandler recalls. She paused and said Are you going to report me to ICE? In the past 19 years, I havent had a caller ask me at the end of a conversation. The community is scared.

The article goes on at length with other anecdotal evidence being offered, mixed in with plenty of quotes from victims advocates without ever once making note of the fact that few illegal aliens not wanted for other, more serious crimes actually wind up getting deported. We simply dont have the resources to process everyone in the country illegally. (At least not yet.)

The focus, of course, remains firmly on women who are suffering abuse at the hands of their domestic partners. You can sense the concern of the authors in every paragraph. But theres one other thing they dont seem to be aware of, or at least dont care to mention. Some of their cohorts in the effort to #RESIST! Trump by thwarting immigration enforcement have come up with some rather unusual views on just how serious domestic violence is. Anyone remember this story out of Denver last week?

In case you dont, allow me to refresh your memory. The City of Denver was also worried about the mean old people from ICE and DHS deporting immigrants (generally ones with green cards in this case) who had been arrested for other crimes. If anyone receives a sentence of one year or more on a wide range of charges they are automatically reported to ICE and can have their paperwork cancelled and be processed for deportation. So the geniuses in Denver decided to take a number of minor offenses and reduce the maximum sentence on them to under a year so they could be classified as petty crimes.

The citys solution? Simply take a bunch of those relatively petty offenses and reduce the maximum penalty to less than 365 days. Just like that, the move takes the crimes (and their perpetrators) off the radar of immigration authorities.

Its not a novel approach to protecting immigrants, but coming as a direct response to President Trumps crackdown, its particularly timely.

So what qualified as relatively petty offenses in this grand solution? You guessed it. Assault and first or second instances of domestic violence. So if we combine the complaints coming out of todays story with the one in Denver, those female illegal immigrants are in really rough shape. They dont want to call for help because they fear they might be deported, but if they do call for help, the government wont take them seriously because domestic abuse is no big deal.

And all of these directly opposing efforts are being done to make it harder for ICE to do their jobs and enforce the law. This is some first rate schizophrenia on display here (a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behavior, leading to faulty perception). You claim you want to help these illegal immigrants, but you seem to be doing them even more harm. Perhaps youre really not trying to help anyone and are instead simply trying to score cheap points against the Trump administration? Admittedly, thats just a guess.

See the original post here:
The pro-illegal immigration left is officially suffering from schizophrenia - Hot Air

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) appeared on "Fox & Friends" this morning to discuss a proposed bill that takes aim at a program that protects illegal immigrants.

More than 300,000 illegal immigrants living in the U.S. are shielded under theTemporary Protected Status program.

Gohmert, a co-sponsor of the bill, said the program was started under former President George H.W. Bush with good intentions, but it was abused under the Obama administration.

He explained that it was intended to protect refugees fleeing war-torn countries, but it now essentially offers illegal immigrants de facto amnesty, as it allows them to repeatedly renew their temporary protected status.

He said we must force the countries designated for the program, including Syria, Yemen and Sudan, to take these individuals back, since those are hotbeds of radical Islamic terror that pose a threat to American citizens.

"They took a good program started underGeorge H.W. Bush for humanitarian purposes, and they turned it into a program that can be a way to hurt our country," Gohmert said. "And so it has to stop."

"This bill will force that to be reviewed and send people back that shouldn't be there," Gohmert said. "The bottom line is: If you're coming as a radical Islamist from a country that you've torn up with war, don't plan on staying to celebrate 9/11 in the United States."

Watch more above, and share your reaction in the comments.

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Shoving Match, Threats Explode in Texas Capitol Over Illegal Immigration

See the original post:
Gohmert: Time to End Temporary Status Program for Illegal Immigrants - Fox News Insider

The final day of a Texas state legislative session turned ugly when rowdy protesters showed up to speak out against the new state law banning sanctuary cities.

Republican State Rep. Matt Rinaldi called Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the protesters, some of whom carried signs saying they were illegal immigrants.

Democratic Rep. Poncho Nevrez and other Hispanic lawmakers were outraged.

Nevarez and Rinaldi engaged in a shoving and shouting match that collected several other lawmakers.

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Nevarez allegedly threatened Rinaldi a number of times, saying he would "get him" on his way to his car.

"I'll put a bullet in your head," Rinaldi shot back.

He later said the 'bullet' comment was meant in self-defense.

Nile Gardiner, former aide to Margaret Thatcher said on "The Fox News Specialists" that Texas is leading the way in cracking down on sanctuary cities.

"The idea that you can have cities that violate the rules of the land ... is absolutely preposterous," Gardiner said.

Top terror prosecutor Andrew McCarthy disagreed.

"If they want to have a policy that's more open to people of questionable pedigree in terms of their legal right to be here, that's okay with me. I just don't want to pay for it," McCarthy said.

Watch the exchange above.

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See more here:
Shoving Match, Threats Explode in Texas Capitol Over Illegal Immigration - Fox News Insider

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A Washington Post piece describes the vast majority of sheriffs across the U.S. as being aligned with President Donald Trumps immigration enforcement measures:

A week ago Monday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that any city that refuses to share information with the federal government about immigrants could lose federal funding. Called sanctuary cities and states, these geographic entities resisting the Trump administrations efforts to increase immigration enforcement have gotten a great deal of news coverage.

But what about their opposites the local governments eager to enforce the new immigration mandates? County sheriffs, who are largely elected via popular vote, play an important and often ignored role in immigration enforcement and are more likely to support federal enforcement efforts than comparable local officials.

According to Mirya Holman with Tulane University and Emily Farris of Texas Christian University, 85 percent of sheriffs believe there should be more federal money spent on enforcing immigration and closing the U.S.-Mexico Border.

About 70 percent of sheriffs said they supported law enforcement being able to ask about a persons immigration status.

Although American sheriffs prefer Trumps immigration enforcement measures, the researchers found that they did not hold views that were personally directed towards immigrants, themselves.

While immigration arrests of criminal illegal aliens continue to rise under Trump thus far, the number of sheriffs signing onto federal-local agreements to cooperate with federal immigration agents has increased as well.

In sanctuary jurisdictions, like the New York City, the NYPD released nearly 180 criminal illegal aliens back onto the streets in the first four months of 2017, Breitbart Texas reported.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at@JxhnBinder.

See the article here:
WaPo: Sheriffs 'Enthusiastic' About Helping Deport Illegal Immigrants - Breitbart News