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The would-be foster parents, William and Jill Johnson, were trying to secure custody of their grandson when William was reportedly told he had to hand over the serial numbers for every gun in the home to complete the process.William claims the caseworker said, If you want to care for your grandson you will have to give up some of your constitutional rights.

SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb told Breitbart News that this sacrifice of Second Amendment rights includes having no guns for self-protection at home or carried on ones person. And in a press release sent to Breitbart News, SAF pointed out that aGogebic County Court judge allegedly told Williams he had to comply with caseworkers gun control request if he wanted the foster acquisition to succeed.

According to the SAF press release,

The policy of the MDHHS, by implementing requirements and restrictions that are actually functional bans on the bearing of firearms for self-defense, both in and out of the home, completely prohibits foster and adoptive parents, and those who would be foster or adoptive parents, from the possession and bearing of readily-available firearms for the purpose of self-defense. This violates Plaintiffs constitutional rights under the Second and Fourteenth Amendments.

The release quoted Gottlieb saying, The statements from the caseworker and judge are simply outrageous. This amounts to coercion, with a child as their bartering chip. I cannot recall ever hearing anything so offensive and egregious, and weve handled cases like this in the past. Blatantly telling someone they must give up their civil rights in order to care for their own grandchild is simply beyond the pale.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host ofBullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter:@AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.

P.S. DO YOU WANT MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS ONE DELIVERED RIGHT TO YOUR INBOX?SIGN UP FOR THE DAILY BREITBART NEWSLETTER.

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2nd Amendment Foundation Files Suit: Alleges Foster Parents Forced to Give Up Gun Rights for Child - Breitbart News

On Sunday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would not limit the number of refugees coming into the country. On the issue of an upper limit, my position is clear, Merkel said. I wont accept one.

Setting aside the electoral implications of Merkels statement, which defied her partys long-term coalition partner just two months before federal elections, it perfectly captured the refusal of European leaders to face the migrant crisis head-ona refusal that in turn epitomizes the slow suicide of European civilization.

President Trumps Warsaw speech earlier this month provoked predictable cries of racism and xenophobia from a mainstream media worried that even the term western civilization was a dog whistle for alt-right nationalists.Implicit in such criticism is the dubious notion that western values are not really western, that people of all cultures and religions desire more or less the same thing.

His critics say Trump was playing on white Europeans fears that Muslim migrants wont adopt western values and wont assimilate into European society, and therefore pose a direct threat to western civilization. But theres another group that Trump no doubt had in mind, a group that also rejects western civilization and has little interest in defending or preserving it: European elites.

Without splitting hairs over what we mean by western civilization, lets stipulate that, at minimum, it encompasses things like freedom of speech and religion, equal rights for both sexes, and democratic rule of law. One could argue that these are elements of western civilization most people in Muslim-majority countries dont share with the denizens of Europe. But lets set that aside and ask an equally pressing question: do European political leaders believe in them? Do their policies reflect a desire to defend and preserve these principles?

Increasingly, the answer is no. Take womens rights, for example. In Europe as in America, the equality of the sexes has for decades been held as an immutable fact. But Europe is even more militant about its feminism than America. For Europeans, the very idea of a housewife is backwards and oppressive; mothers are expected to work and send their children to state-subsidized child care, not opt out of the workforce to raise a family. This is the official policy of the EU, which has entire commissions dedicated to ensuring more women enter the workforce.

For Muslim immigrants to Europe, who come from societies in which women are generally subordinate to men, this comes as a shock. Yet for a long time Europe insisted that newcomers adopt western attitudes regarding womens rights and sexual freedom. As Christopher Caldwell has noted, this was the only non-negotiable demand Europe made of its immigrants. The European ruling class might have been willing to look the other way on free speech and denounce as fascist anyone who worries about Islam and terrorism, but on feminism there was no room for negotiation: It is the litmus test according to which assimilationand even membership in the national communityis judged. It is the one area where Europeans retain both a deep suspicion of Muslim ways and a confidence in their own institutions that is free of self-doubt.

At least, thats how it used to be. Caldwell wrote those lines in 2009, long before the migrant crisis coincided with a spike in sexual assaults perpetrated mostly by Muslim men. The mass sexual assault in Cologne and other German cities on New Years Eve last year made headlinesnot just because of the brazen nature of the attacks but also because German authorities tried to suppress information about them. It was only after rumors and eyewitness accounts began cropping up on social media that authorities acknowledged what had happened.

The most infamous case of this kind is perhaps the Rotherham child sex exploitation ring, which first came to light in 2010. An independent inquiry found in 2014 that British men of Pakistani origin had groomed at least 1,400 underage girls for sexual exploitation over the previous 16 years. The girls, some as young as 12, were variously abducted, raped, tortured, and forced into prostitution. Even more shocking than the details of the sex ring is why it persisted for so long: police and city officials knew what was happening but didnt take action for fear of being accused of racism.

You would think this would be enough for the government to take action and protect the women and girls being preyed upon by these men, but youd be wrong. Two years after the inquiry, an investigation by the Daily Express found that nothing had changed; the exploitation was still happening on an industrial scale.

The Rotherham case predated the migrant crisis, but there are signs that the ongoing influx of Middle Easterners and North Africansmore migrants have already arrived in Europe this year than in all of 2016is making the problem much worse.

Last week, Cheryl Benard, who spent years working with refugees all over the world, wrote about the growing incidence of sexual assault committed by refugees against local women. The vast majority of such assaults are reportedly being committed by young Afghan men, sometimes in broad daylight. In some cases, passersby have intervened to prevent women from being raped by multiple assailants. As in the Rotherham and Cologne cases, the fact of the assaults was disturbing, but equally disturbing was the reaction of the media and government officials. Writes Benard:

It took a while for the pattern to be recognized because, until recently, western European media deliberately refrained from identifying an assailants refugee or asylum status, or his country of origin. Only when the correlation became so dramatic that it was itself newsworthy did this policy change. At that point, it became clear that the authorities had known about, and for political reasons had deliberately covered up, large-scale incidences of sexual assault by migrants.

The inability or unwillingness of Muslim migrant men to conform to the sexual mores of Europe is of course just one of the problems the migrant crisis has brought to the continent. But the knee-jerk reaction of European elites to either ignore or deny these sorts of problems speaks volumes about their commitment to western civilization.

In his new book, The Strange Death of Europe, British journalist Douglas Murray documents his travels across Europe reporting on the migrant crisis, and concludes that Europe is so morally exhausted that it rejects its own right to exist. Europe today has little desire to reproduce itself, fight for itself or even take its own side in an argument, writes Murray. Those in power seem persuaded that it would not matter if the people and culture of Europe were lost to the world.

According to Murray, the migrant crisis perfectly encapsulates this exhaustion. In some ways, its a case of competing virtues: the desire to be virtuous to the rest of the world is competing against justice for the people of Europe. Increasingly, virtue is winning out over justice because a misguided commitment to hollow notions of respect, tolerance, and diversity has supplanted the deep roots of European civilization. The problem, argues Murray, is that European values have become so wide as to become meaninglessly shallow.

As the crisis deepens, its become obvious that Europes leaders are now so ambivalent about the survival of their own civilization theyre unable to speak of the bad things that have come, and will keep coming, with mass migration.

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Unable To Confront The Migrant Crisis, Europe Is Committing Suicide - The Federalist

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The Italian government has been calling on the European Union to do more to help the country as it struggles to deal with the thousands of migrants who land on its shores every day.

But failure to secure more aid has caused the public to turn against the establishment.

And the Italian government has now delayed a vote to grant migrant children born in the country citizenship, fearing tensions will boil over.

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Aid workers help migrants up the shore after making the crossing from Turkey to the Greek island of Lesbos on November 16, 2015 in Sikaminias, Greece

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Centre-left Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni was hoping to push through the bill that would give the children rights at birth or after at least five years of attending Italian schools.

But the vote has been put on hold until later this year.

More than 86,000 migrants have arrived in Italy so far this year, up ten per cent compared to the same period in 2016.

Immigration remains a thorny issue facing Italian politics as exasperated officials express discontent they are receiving little to no help from their European neighbours to deal with the escalating crisis.

Mr Gentiloni said in a statement: "Given the urgent deadlines in the Senate calendar and the difficulties that have emerged in some parts of the majority, I don't think the conditions are right to approve the draft law on citizenship for foreign minors born in Italy before the summer break.

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The prime ministers decision comes after latest opinion polls showed a majority of locals opposed the legislation.

And the proposed bill also proved to be a liability for Mr Gentiloni and former prime minister Matteo Renzi in the face of rising populist parties including Five Star Movement and the North League party.

The ruling Democratic party also face a national election in 2018.

Matteo Salvini, head of the anti-immigration North League party, described Mr Gentilonis U-turn as a victory, adding: If they try again, theyll find us ready. Stop invasion.

Anti-establishment Five Star Movement politician and current mayor of Rome Virginia Raggi has also called or a moratorium on new arrivals in the Italian capital.

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But Mario Calabresi, editor of left-leaning Italian newspaper La Repubblica, blasted the decision to delay the vote.

He wrote: This law would give citizenship to the kids in our schools, who speak our language, who play our games, support our teams and harbour the same dreams as our kids.

This is about integrating them, not leaving them on the margins of society, and this should be an imperative to all those who care about security.

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Italy in crisis as vote to grant migrant children citizenship delayed amid public backlash - Express.co.uk

Europe

14:13 18.07.2017(updated 14:19 18.07.2017) Get short URL

In the years to come, rampaging climate change transforming many places on Earth beyond recognition may unleash yet another wave of asylum seekers fleeing from areas rendered uninhabitable by floods, droughts or heat.

If not combated effectively, it can force tens ofmillions ofpeople toflee. Over 26 million people relocated forclimate reasons in2008-2015 alone, according toUNHCR. While the majority ofthem moved insidetheir home country, they may eventually cross borders and try their luck elsewhere, preferably incooler and more stable areas, such asScandinavia.

"It is likely that Finland will sooner or later encounter climate refugees," Annu Lehtinen, chief executive officer ofthe Finnish Refugee Aid, told the Finnish daily Hufvudstadsbladet.

"The international community's actions toslow downclimate change affects whether we'll have tocount the climate refugees bythe million inthe coming decades," Lehtinen ventured.

At present, there is no special preparedness forclimate refugees inFinland. The country's Migration Board has not set forth any separate directives onhow asylum applications forclimate refugees are tobe treated. So far, no one has applied forasylum inFinland forreasons ofclimate change either, unlikeDenmark.

However, according toJuha Simil ofthe Finnish Migration Board, climate change has already entered the authority's agenda.

"As forSomalia, forinstance, we have recently updated our guidelines, inorder toput the drought that hit the country intoconsideration," Juha Simil told Hufvudstadsbladet.

According toLehtinen, instead ofrevising the agreements, the international community should focus onfighting climate change and looking foralternative solutions, such asintroducing supplementary legislation.

For Finland itself, climate change may become a mixed blessing. According toa recent report fromthe Finnish National Resources Institute (LUKE), a warmer climate may yield bigger harvests. On the other hand, the risks also increase, aspotential storm damage escalates asis exposure tovarious plant diseases. In the report, Finnish farmers have been advised tohave a closer look atcrops previously considered exotic inorder toadapt toclimate change.

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Migrant Crisis Revisited: Cool North to Become Magnet for 'Climate Refugees' - Sputnik International

If there was a valid licensed driver driving the vehicle, the Geneseo police chief, Eric Osganian, said in a statement after the two sisters were pulled over, there would have been no need to call Border Patrol to confirm the ID of the driver.

As many as 12 states, along with the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, offer drivers licenses for unauthorized immigrants, up from three in 2010. New York, which has the third-largest immigrant population in the country, is not one of them.

In large sections of the United States, unauthorized immigrants drive without a license anyway to work, to shop or to take their children to school or other activities. Carlos Cardona, 28, who works on a dairy farm outside of Rochester, said he had no choice the night his infant daughters fever spiked. He drove to get her medicine. I know we are in another country that is not our own, and I dont like breaking the law, he said in an interview in Spanish, but when it comes to my family, I have to take risks.

Luis Jimenez, 33, another dairy worker who said that he drove without a license, said: We are workers. We are not here to harm anybody. We need things to advance.

Supporters of efforts to allow those who are undocumented to get drivers licenses say that public safety would improve because they would be required to pass road tests and obtain insurance. But critics said that licenses represented a privilege that unauthorized immigrants should not hold, because they should not be here in the first place.

Outside of Rochester, Tony Bartolucci, a pastor, and his daughter were struck by an unlicensed, undocumented driver on their way to buying a Christmas tree on Christmas Eve in 2015. His daughter, Giana, 14, died six months later after brain surgery.

It was the second time that he was caught in the country illegally, Mr. Bartolucci said. And both times were due to his being drunk while driving. Obviously, if he wasnt in the country illegally, it wouldnt have happened either. But Im not going to make a political point about it.

He believes in restricting illegal immigration and thinks that giving drivers licenses to people in the country illegally is just a non sequitur. But at the same time, Mr. Bartolucci said, he has forgiven his daughters killer.

While Connecticut and Vermont enacted laws in 2013 that allow noncitizens to obtain licenses, a similar effort in New York has made little progress in more than a decade.

In 2007, Gov. Eliot Spitzer ordered that unauthorized immigrants be given licenses, but within two months, he was forced to rescind the order under pressure from upstate county clerks serving as officers of the Department of Motor Vehicles who refused to enforce it. Bills supporting the idea have been introduced in the State Assembly the last three years, but in June, another legislative session ended without a bill for limited purpose drivers licenses getting out of the transportation committee.

Advocates for a grass-roots campaign, Green Light NY: Driving Together, to offer the licenses considered this years effort a test run for next year. They emphasized the public safety aspect of having noncitizen licenses so that all drivers know the rules of the road and carry insurance.

Senator Kathleen A. Marchione, a Republican representing the Upper Hudson Valley, was the president of the New York State Association of County Clerks when it opposed Gov. Spitzers initiative in 2007. She does not understand the argument for giving licenses to those who are undocumented.

Driving without a license should not give you a right to have a drivers license when you are already breaking the law in two instances, she said in an interview. Thats like saying if a kid is drinking at 16 years old, we might as well let him.

Senator Marchione said that the associations main objection in 2007 still stands: that creating a license designated for unauthorized immigrants could enable would-be terrorists to obtain identification. (Some of the Sept. 11 hijackers used state drivers licenses to check in for their flights.)

The Assembly bill, proposed by a Queens Democrat, Francisco Moya, however, would ensure that the card would not be legal for federal purposes boarding an airplane or entering federal buildings.

In New York State, drivers licenses are offered to green card holders with Social Security numbers, and those with temporary visitor or work visas, including recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Applicants must provide proof of residence and forms of identification that are weighted on a point scale.

Anne Doebler, a private immigration lawyer in Buffalo, said that undocumented immigrants want to follow traffic laws, and that civil law and immigration law should be kept distinct. Why do we want to use our vehicle and traffic laws to enforce an immigration policy when its detrimental to public safety? she asked.

I dont want someone to hit me who doesnt have insurance, she said. I dont care what their immigration status is.

A recent report out of Stanford University in California, which started issuing drivers licenses for undocumented residents in 2015, examined the public safety aspect of the law. With 600,000 new licensed drivers who were undocumented in 2015, hit-and-run accidents decreased significantly, by 4,000, from the year before.

According to a report by the Fiscal Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, more than 752,000 undocumented immigrants would be eligible for drivers licenses in New York State, and of that number, roughly 265,000 would apply. Taxes and fees could assist the annual economy in counties and the state by $57 million, the report showed.

The Westchester villages of Mamaroneck, Ossining and Port Chester issued resolutions in support of the State Assembly bill earlier this year. So did Ithaca, Hudson and Irvington.

We think that people should be able to drive so that they can be productive members of the community, as well as being properly licensed and insured, said Nancy Seligson, the Mamaroneck town supervisor.

Recently, Alberto, a 32-year-old Mexican man living in Ulster County for the last 11 years, was on his way to visit his sick mother-in-law in Florida when a police officer pulled his car over. His wife had been breast-feeding their infant while the car was moving. That was illegal.

Alberto, who declined to give his last name because of his immigration status, said in a recent interview that he was arrested that night in Georgia. His car was impounded because he had no license to drive it. He was able to get the car back and plead to lesser charges, he said, but those charges have not yet been reduced. He could still face deportation.

Back in New York, he continues to drive, always looking over his shoulder. I have to be perfect, he said.

An earlier version of this article misstated where a recently arrested 32-year-old driver lived. He lives in Ulster County, not Westchester.

Sandra E. Garcia contributed reporting.

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Driving While Undocumented, and Facing the Risks - New York Times