July 1, 2019

VisionQuest, For-Profit Firm Tapped to House Migrant Kids in Philadelphia, Has Sordid History

From the founder’s comment about a racial slur in 1979 to allegations of physical abuse in 2017, VisionQuest has been dogged by controversy.

Michael Daly
Special Correspondent

Published 07.01.19 4:44AM ET

Migrant children may soon be housed at a for-profit facility in Philadelphia managed by the same company that ran a juvenile detention center there until state authorities shut it down amid allegations of physical abuse two years ago.

The City of Brotherly Love is also a sanctuary city and it is staging a legal fight to block a federally funded $5 million plan by VisionQuest to hold 60 migrant children aged 13 to 17 at a facility called the Grace Dix Center. A judge found in favor of VisionQuest, but the city has appealed.

Popular opposition to the plan in Philadelphia was stoked when the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the company’s founder, Robert Burton, overheard two counselors-in-training chatting with each other and told them, “Don’t speak Spanish.”

That was just the latest in a long series of troubling incidents at VisionQuest, stretching all the way back to 1979 when Burton was quoted as saying the use of the N-word is “not necessarily improper.”

Back then, Burton did allow to the Arizona Daily Star that the word had been directed “inappropriately” by one of his staff to a 17-year-old girl in a group home run by his enterprise.

more
https://www.thedailybeast.com/visionquest-for-profit-firm-tapped-to-house-migrant-kids-in-philadelphia-has-sordid-history?ref=home

July 1, 2019

"David vs. Goliath": Lawyers struggle to help asylum seekers sent back to Mexico

BY CAMILO MONTOYA-GALVEZ

JULY 1, 2019 / 6:19 AM / CBS NEWS

Since the Trump administration implemented its controversial "Remain in Mexico" policy in the Texas border city of El Paso in late March, more than 6,500 asylum seekers have been sent back to neighboring Ciudad Juárez, the largest city in the Mexican state of Chihuahua.

While they wait for their day in a U.S. court, these Central American migrants struggle to find shelter and employment in Mexico, some face persecution and extortion and most will show up to court without a lawyer.

The Trump administration has begun to accelerate "Remain in Mexico" in El Paso and two other locations: the California border cities of San Diego and Calexico. More than 15,000 asylum seekers have now been returned to Mexico.

A small cohort of local non-profits and pro bono attorneys in the El Paso area have mobilized to help them with legal counsel. But they face limited resources, logical barriers and safety concerns to help thousands of migrants stranded in one of the most dangerous cities in Mexico and the Western Hemisphere.

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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-remain-in-mexico-policy-thousands-of-asylum-seekers-in-mexico-and-few-lawyers-to-help-them/

July 1, 2019

The Finance 202: Trump's deal with China offers less than meets the eye

By Tory Newmyer
July 1 at 7:28 AM

The trade truce that President Trump negotiated with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Japan over the weekend offers less than meets the eye.

Business leaders are sighing with relief that the agreement forestalls the imposition of tariffs on an additional $300 billion of Chinese goods. But otherwise it mostly appeared to lock in place a status quo that could augur an extended economic cold war between the world’s two largest economies.

The proof of that, analysts say, will be evident in the results the truce produces. Among other things, look for those results to include a stock market bump that’s short-lived; no new clarity for Federal Reserve officials trying to determine whether to cut interest rates; a continuing escalation between the United States and China in tensions over technology; and corporate chiefs holding back on major investments and continuing to migrate supply chains out of China.

1. The stock market.

The market just concluded a strong half-year, with the S&P 500 up 17 percent over that period and the Dow Jones industrial average climbing 14 percent. That represents the Dow's strongest first-half performance in two decades, capped by its best June since 1938. Investor bullishness came despite Trump's intensifying trade war with China, and threatening escalations on other fronts, including Mexico and the European Union. But several Wall Street watchers, weighing in over the weekend, said the Osaka cease-fire won’t translate into a sustained rally for stocks, because investors probably will recognize its limits.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-finance-202/2019/07/01/the-finance-202-trump-s-deal-with-china-offers-less-than-meets-the-eye/5d193bba1ad2e552a21d51cb/