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WASHINGTON Today, President Biden named seventeen recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the Nations highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors.

President Biden has long said that America can be defined by one word: possibilities. These seventeen Americans demonstrate the power of possibilities and embody the soul of the nation hard work, perseverance, and faith. They have overcome significant obstacles to achieve impressive accomplishments in the arts and sciences, dedicated their lives to advocating for the most vulnerable among us, and acted with bravery to drive change in their communities and across the world while blazing trails for generations to come.

The awards will be presented at the White House on July 7, 2022.

The following individuals will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom:

Simone Biles

Simone Biles is the most decorated American gymnast in history, with a combined total of 32 Olympic and World Championship medals. Biles is also a prominent advocate for athletes mental health and safety, children in the foster care system, and victims of sexual assault.

Sister Simone Campbell

Sister Simone Campbellis a member of the Sisters of Social Service and former Executive Director of NETWORK, a Catholic social justice organization. She is also a prominent advocate for economic justice, immigration reform, and healthcare policy.

Julieta Garca

Dr. Julieta Garca is the former president of The University of Texas at Brownsville, where she was named one ofTimemagazines best college presidents. Dr. Garca was the first Hispanic woman to serve as a college president and dedicated her career to serving students from the Southwest Border region.

Gabrielle Giffords

Former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was the youngest woman ever elected to the Arizona State Senate, serving first in the Arizona legislature and later in the U.S. Congress. A survivor of gun violence, she co-founded Giffords, a nonprofit organization dedicated to gun violence prevention.

Fred Gray

Fred Gray was one of the first black members of the Alabama State legislature since Reconstruction. As an attorney, he represented Rosa Parks, the NAACP, and Martin Luther King, who called him the chief counsel for the protest movement.

Steve Jobs (posthumous)

Steve Jobs (d. 2011) was the co-founder, chief executive, and chair of Apple, Inc., CEO of Pixar and held a leading role at the Walt Disney Company. His vision, imagination and creativity led to inventions that have, and continue to, change the way the world communicates, as well as transforming the computer, music, film and wireless industries.

Father Alexander Karloutsos

Father Alexander Karloutsos is the former Vicar General of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. After over 50 years as a priest, providing counsel to several U.S. presidents, he was named by His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew as a Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

Khizr Khan

Khizr Khanis a Gold Star father and founder of the Constitution Literacy and National Unity Center. He is a prominent advocate for the rule of law and religious freedom and served on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom under President Biden.

Sandra Lindsay

Sandra Lindsayis a New York critical care nurse who served on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic response. She was the first American to receive a COVID-19 vaccine outside of clinical trials and is a prominent advocate for vaccines and mental health for health care workers.

John McCain (posthumous)

John McCain (d. 2018) was a public servant who was awarded a Purple Heart with one gold star for his service in the U.S. Navy in Vietnam. He also served the people of Arizona for decades in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate and was the Republican nominee for president in 2008.

Diane Nash

Diane Nash is a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee who organized some of the most important civil rights campaigns of the 20th century. Nash worked closely with Martin Luther King, who described her as the driving spirit in the nonviolent assault on segregation at lunch counters.

Megan Rapinoe

Megan Rapinoeis an Olympic gold medalist and two-time Womens World Cup champion. She also captains OL Reign in the National Womens Soccer League. She is a prominent advocate for gender pay equality, racial justice, and LGBTQI+ rights.

Alan Simpson

Alan Simpson served as a U.S. Senator from Wyoming for 18 years. During his public service, he has been a prominent advocate on issues including campaign finance reform, responsible governance, and marriage equality.

Richard Trumka (posthumous)

Richard Trumka (d. 2021)was president of the 12.5-million-member AFL-CIO for more than a decade, president of the United Mine Workers, and secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO. Throughout his career, he was an outspoken advocate for social and economic justice.

Wilma Vaught

Brigadier General Wilma Vaughtis one of the most decorated women in the history of the U.S. military, repeatedly breaking gender barriers as she rose through the ranks. When she retired in 1985, she was one of only seven women generals in the Armed Forces.

Denzel Washington

Denzel Washington is an actor, director, and producer who has won two Academy Awards, a Tony Award, two Golden Globes, and the 2016 Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award. He has also served as National Spokesman for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America for over 25 years.

Ral Yzaguirre

Ral Yzaguirre is a civil rights advocate who served as CEO and president of National Council of La Raza for thirty years. He also served as U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic under President Barack Obama.

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President Biden Announces Recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom - The White House

Explore the July issue of The American Legion Magazine, with feature articles on the legacy of Old Ironsides, the Legions immigration policy, the origins of Roberts Rules of Order and more.The clickable digi-mag is available throughMyLegion.org.

In Americas Ship of State, John Raughter describes how USS Constitution became the worlds oldest warship afloat, surviving battles on the high seas and budget-minded bureaucrats. Plus, a Q&A with Cmdr. Billie Farrell, the first woman to command Old Ironsides and newest member of J.W. Conway Bunker Hill American Legion Post 26 in Charleston, Mass.

Passed by The American Legions National Executive Committee on May 5, Resolution 23 clarifies and updates the organizations policy on immigration, border control, detention and the route to naturalization and U.S. citizenship.

After presiding over a contentious public meeting in New Bedford, Mass., in 1863, Army officer and West Point graduate Henry Martyn Robert wrote his own manual on parliamentary procedure one still used today by government bodies, city and town councils, planning boards, school committees and more than 12,000 American Legion posts.

An American Legion report recommends VA and the Department of Education clear up definitions, rules and outdated references for GI Bill-using veterans and military-affiliated students enrolled in online programs. Online is the future, and the quality is there, says Joseph Wescott, a higher education consultant for the Legion and former president of the National Association of State Approving Agencies. Were not going back, due to the far-reaching advancements in technology.

In Hells Half Acre, Keith Nightingale tells the story of young paratroopers who led a misdropped resistance force in stalling German reinforcements at Normandy. No heavy weapons, no officers, no medics, no radios, he writes. This would be the ultimate light infantry battle, led by two men barely out of their teens.

This years 1,200-mile American Legion Legacy Run will depart Mobile, Ala., on Aug. 21 and travel through five states before arriving Aug. 25 at Post 434 in Oak Creek, Wis., in advance of the Legions 103rd National Convention in Milwaukee. Money raised benefits the American Legion Legacy Scholarship Fund, which provides college scholarships to children of U.S. military personnel killed on active duty on or after 9/11, as well as children of post-9/11 veterans with a combined VA disability rating of 50% or greater. Register for the Legacy Run or donate here.

An emphasis on programs, activities and spaces that appeal to children is fueling growth at Jack Henry Post 1 in Alaska, Fuquay-Varina Post 116 in North Carolina and elsewhere. As a new membership year begins, The American Legion is trending in the right direction, especially where we are welcoming young veterans and their families, National Commander Paul E. Dillard writes.

Members can clickhereto access the digital magazine.

To join The American Legion and enjoy monthly digital issues ofThe American Legion Magazine, visitlegion.org/join.

Originally posted here:
Old Ironsides, immigration reform and more in July magazine - The American Legion

Bobby Jenkins| Opinion contributor

The coronavirus pandemic brought on many challenges to our communities, homes, and businesses. As we continue to face instabilities from ongoing crises both domestically and abroad, there is one thing our elected officials should find common ground on to boost our economic outlook for the foreseeable future: reforming the U.S. immigration system to match workers across all skill sets with available jobs.

Immigrants have long improved Texas industries, making up large shares of our workforce in a variety of sectors, from construction to food production and services to healthcare, and representing nearly a quarter of our overall workforce. They are major economic multipliers, holding an estimated total annual spending power of over $120 billion, and they contribute to state programs such as transportation, education, and social services through $40 billion in state and local taxes annually.

However, our nations antiquated and complex immigration system has rendered it almost impossible for immigrants to fully join the workforce in a meaningful capacity due to a lack of authorization, inaccessible work permits, or uncertainty of what will come next in terms of legal status. Even though about 1.6 million undocumented Texans contribute the same as any other citizen to the tune of $6.5 billion in state, local and federal taxes and are vital to our economic well-being, current policies prevent them from building a stable future.

As Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recently stated during a fireside chat around the states economy, The workforce propels businesses; the workforce propels Texas. However, cultivating a stable, balanced workforce with people of all skill levels is a tricky business, and key industries such as construction and home services, among others are struggling to hire employees. I have witnessed this firsthand. My company, ABC Home & Commercial Services, is facing difficulties hiring employees of all skill sets. Nationally, 51 percent of small businesses had openings that they could not fill at the end of last year.

While some businesses are starting to take matters into their own hands by leaving the status quo and implementing new operations, leaders at the state level are also working to address labor issues. The Texas Workforce Commission directed nearly $20 million in funds for programs dedicated to training workers to fill job openings, and several industries, such as the energy sector, have resorted to upping pay and benefits.

However, more can and must be done to get more workers on the job, and efforts at the federal level must provide innovative and forward-thinking solutions for all Texans. Texas representatives in both the House and Senate must pass immigration reform to recognize the true economic potential of Texas immigrant community and allow qualified, skilled workers to join our workforce.

If our leaders in Congress do not address this issue soon, we will have to face even greater labor challenges. Today, experienced workers are aging out of the industry, and there are not nearly enough applicants from the younger generations who want to work in laborious fields such as construction, agriculture, and building/grounds maintenance.

What we need are ready and able workers, and the public also agrees, with the majority of Americans supporting a pathway to citizenship.

It is my hope that the conversation around immigration reform continues to shift as more and more leaders and communities recognize the enormous benefits of immigration becoming more apparent than ever. Texas representatives in Congress must see the urgency of this situation and work with their colleagues to pass immigration reform measures such as the Dream Act and Farm Workforce Modernization Act that will help our state to succeed.

As Texans and as the state with the ninth largest economy in the world by GDP, we must bring innovative and forward-thinking solutions to the table. Immigration reform is a good place to start.

Bobby Jenkins is the CEO of ABC Home & Commercial Services and chairman of the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority.

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OPINION: When it comes to immigration, Texas can lead on innovative economic solutions - Caller Times

At a June 14 Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee meeting, environmentalists warned that the Colorado Rivers reservoir level drop might bring dramatic cuts to water deliveries provided to the seven states dependent on the river. Those states are California, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

Alarmingly, given its importance, the American Rivers conservation group ranked the Colorado as No. 1 on its list of the nations most endangered rivers.

Bureau of Reclamation commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton told the committee that maintaining critical levels at the largest reservoirs in the United States Lake Mead and Lake Powell will require large reductions in water deliveries.

Touton advised that, in the next two months, her agency is negotiating with the seven states that count on the Colorado River to develop a plan for apportioning the water supply reductions.

The Bureau of Reclamation is the federal agency charged with assisting the Western states, Native American tribes and others to meet water needs. An estimated 40 million residents throughout the region rely on the Colorado for water.

The committees witnesses were unanimous in their predictions that acute water shortages are in the near-term future.

John Entsminger, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, said the slow-motion train wreck thats been accelerating for 20 years has created the moment of reckoning.

We are 150 feet from 25 million Americans losing access to the Colorado River, and the rate of decline is accelerating, he said.

Because the West is suffering through a relentless drought, analysts predict that next year the affected states will cope with a decrease of between 2 million and 4 million acre-feet of water.

Scientific American reported that 2021s exceptionally dry year created a record-breaking drought, or mega-drought. The last 20 years have been the driest two decades in the last 1,200 years.

To date, 2022 is the driest year on record in California. Researchers predict with a 94% degree of certainty that Californias drought will continue for at least one more year.

University of Colorado Boulder climate scientist Imtiaz Rangwala has observed drought conditions increasingly worsen in the western and central United States.

The last two years have been more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 Celsius) warmer than normal in these regions, he said. Large swaths of the Southwest have been even hotter, with temperatures more than 3 F (1.7 C) higher.

But neither during the hearing nor in the news media writeups was population growth in the seven Western states mentioned.

The 2000 populations were 33.9 million in California, 5.1 million in Arizona, 4.3 million in Colorado, 2.2 million in Utah, 2 million in Nevada, 1.8 million in New Mexico and 494,000, in Wyoming.

In 2022, however, they had grown to 39.5 million in California, 7.6 million in Arizona, 5.8 million in Colorado, 3.3 million in Utah, 3.2 million in Nevada, 2.1 million in New Mexico and 579,000 in Wyoming.

In slightly more than two decades, about 12 million more people have become dependent on the Colorado River for water.

The link between more people and more water consumption is undeniable. Yet Congress, the White House, the news media and academia refuse to have a rational discussion about reducing the flow of 1 million-plus legal immigrants which, with their offspring, drive population increases.

Knowing that the nations Western states are in a water crisis, opening the border to millions of people, as President Joe Bidens administration is doing, is ecological suicide.

Nevertheless, the status quo on adding population continues on autopilot, consequences be damned.

Joe Guzzardi is an analyst and researcher with Progressives for Immigration Reform who now lives in Pittsburgh. He can be reached at [emailprotected] and joeguzzardi.substack.com, or follow him on Twitter: @joeguzzardi19. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.

Excerpt from:
Joe Guzzardi: Immigrations Impact on Endangered Colorado River Has Far-Reaching Consequences - Noozhawk

The U.S. government is increasingly utilizing a program that releases illegal immigrants into the U.S. interior instead of keeping them detained until their court hearings, according to a new watchdog report.

TheImmigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) program is formally known as Alternatives to Detention and colloquially known as catch and release.

While federal lawrequires the U.S. government to detain illegal immigrants until they have a court hearing, the government says it does not have the capacity to do so, and has since 2004 been releasing a portion of those captured at the border under the program.

In 2015, ICEenrolled 53,000 illegal immigrants in the program, which uses monitoring tools like GPS ankle bracelets. By 2020, that figure jumped to 111,000, according to a new report (pdf) from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) that analyzed data from contractors paid to help to run the program.

During that time, about a quarter of the illegal aliens placed in the program absconded, or fled the address at which they were staying and could not be located, the GAO found, including 33 percent in fiscal year 2020, which stretched across the Trump and Biden administrations.

The largest number of the illegal immigrants who were unenrolled from the program before they had a court hearing were allowed to do so by government officials on the condition they submit to other monitoring conditions outside of the Alternatives to Detention (ATD).

Most illegal immigrants placed in the program from 2015 through 2020 were from Central America.

The GAO also found that its 2014 recommendations to make sure guidance on how to run the program was being followed have not been fully implemented, that some contractors were not reviewed to make sure they met standards, and that ICE does not have a requirement that contractors present illegal immigrants with legal presentations.

Preston Huennekens, government relations manager with the Federation for Immigration Reform, told The Epoch Times in an email that the report shows the alternatives to detention simply do not work.

More than 40 percent of those enrolled in ATD were failures, including 33 percent who outright absconded. Only 8 percent of cases concluded with the alien leaving the country or winning their asylum claim. ATD simply does not work, and exists only because of our countrys continued refusal to follow existing law and the requirements to detain illegal aliens, he said.

The GAO concluded in its report that ICE has taken steps to implement program policies, collect program data, and oversee the contract but that further actions could improve its implementation, assessment, and oversight of the program and its $2.2 billion contract.

The GAO issued 10 recommendations, including making sure contractors meet standards and making sure contractors provide the legal presentations.

ICE declined to comment beyond what was stated in the report.

According to the GAO, ICEs parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, concurred with all 10 recommendations and said most of the recommended actions are either underway, or there are plans to undertake them.

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Zachary Stieber covers U.S. and world news. He is based in Maryland.

Originally posted here:
Program That Releases Illegal Immigrants into US Being Used More: Watchdog Report - The Epoch Times