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Yahoo
7 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Alaska House Judiciary Committee to hold a fact-finding hearing on ICE detention in state prisons
The entrance to the Anchorage Correctional Complex is seen on Aug. 29, 2022. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon) The Alaska House Judiciary Committee plans to hold a hearing June 20 on the use of Alaska Department of Corrections facilities to house and supervise federal detainees for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The announcement comes following news of DOC holding 42 people arrested and detained by ICE from out of state over the weekend, housed at the Anchorage Correctional Complex, amid a nationwide immigration crackdown. DOC is currently housing 39 ICE detainees, according to a department spokesperson on Friday. Rep. Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage, chair of the judiciary committee, said the goal is to gather information on the terms and conditions of detention for the state detaining people for ICE. 'It's really more a fact-finding hearing just to make sure that we understand exactly what's happening in a situation that, to my knowledge, hasn't happened before,' Gray said in a phone interview Thursday. 'Some of the concerns that we have that we're just curious to learn more about are how much contact they have with their families, with legal representation, and access to medical care,' he said. 'Those sorts of things are things that we want to make sure that they have.' The hearing is planned for June 20 at 1 p.m. at the Anchorage Legislative Information Office, and will be streamed live on the Legislature's website and Gavel Alaska. The committee has invited officials with the Department of Corrections, Department of Law, the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska and attorneys representing several of the men to present. Gray pointed to immigration status as a civil legal issue, and not a criminal one. 'And my limited understanding of what's happening in DOC right now with these detainees is that they are not being afforded those additional rights and freedoms that would come to someone who would be at an ICE detention facility,' he said. ICE has not responded to multiple requests for comment, including on what criminal or civil charges are being brought against the men. One man being held in Alaska custody, Albert Khamitov, was granted asylum by an immigration judge for ''clear evidence of state sponsored persecution' of LGBTQ+ people in Russia,' the Seattle Times has reported. The U.S. government appealed that asylum decision and he has remained in detention while fighting the case. Gray said he's been speaking with several attorneys representing the men currently detained, who have raised the issue of whether they are receiving adequate translation services while in Alaska custody. Gray said he's been told DOC staff are using Google Translate to communicate with detainees, which he said is inadequate. 'I want to hear from DOC, I want them to talk about how they're handling this issue. But the fear is that folks have been removed to Alaska, cannot communicate with the people who are, you know, managing them, and have no way of contacting their friends and family from where they came,' he said. 'I just can't imagine what that must be like for them. So I hope that my fear is unfounded.' DOC spokesperson Betsy Holley said Friday via email that the department is using translation services. 'We have long had, and utilize professional translation services: Language Link, Language Line Services, Alaska Interpreting Alliance, and Big Language Solutions,' she said. 'Additionally, we have many bilingual staff members. The facility chooses the service based on availability at the time the need arises.' The department did not respond to requests for comment on the concerns around conditions of detention, access to communication with families and attorneys, as well as access to medical care, by Friday at 4 p.m. Gray said he's also concerned about the state's risk for potential litigation around standards of detention. 'Our facilities were not designed for this. Our personnel were not trained for this,' Gray said. 'My fear is that there's going to be some very well-founded litigation about these folks being here that the state is going to have to pay for. It is not going to break even. This is going to end up costing Alaska a lot of money, is my fear.' Questions remain around why the men were transferred to Alaska from the Tacoma ICE Detention Facility, as two men were transferred back to Washington state within one day, according to the Department of Corrections. 'There are rights that are guaranteed to people in the United States, regardless of their immigration status, a person cannot be incarcerated without knowing what the charges are against them, without the right to legal representation, without the right to defend themselves,' Gray said. 'I have fear that these folks aren't being awarded these rights as they should be, but I will reserve judgment.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Local officials warn of possible lawsuit in wake of Alaska governor's education funding veto
Then-Rep. Grier Hopkins, D-Fairbanks, speaks on the floor of the Alaska House, Wednesday, May 18, 2022. Hopkins is now the mayor of the Fairbanks North Star Borough. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) One day after Gov. Mike Dunleavy made a precedent-setting veto by cutting funding for the state's public school education formula, a group of city and borough leaders denounced the decision during a joint news conference, with some saying that they expect a lawsuit to challenge it. 'Everybody needs to start talking about what a lawsuit looks like,' said Rozlyn Grady-Wyche, a member of the Mountain View Community Council in Anchorage. Caroline Storm, of the Coalition for Education Equity, has been talking about a lawsuit for more than a year. On Friday, she said the coalition 'will file or be a partner in a lawsuit before next session, because it doesn't seem that between the Legislature and the governor, that they are capable of meeting their constitutional obligation to adequately fund public education.' State lawmakers this year voted for a bill that increases the base student allocation, core of the state's per-student funding formula, by $700 per student, overriding a Dunleavy veto in the process. But that formula is subject to the state's annual budget process, in separate legislation. If the formula is a bucket, the budget decides how full that bucket is. Until now, lawmakers and the governor have filled that bucket to capacity each year. This year, one of Dunleavy's vetoes took $200 per student from that bucket, cutting about $50.6 million statewide. For municipal officials, it's a significant problem because the ordinary local budget process is over, meaning that they will have to reopen their budgets and make additional cuts to public education. In some cases, those cuts will come atop school closures — including in Fairbanks, Anchorage, Kodiak and the Kenai Peninsula Borough — and other cuts that were already planned. 'It's a crisis for our state, and that's why we're all here today,' said Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Grier Hopkins during the joint news conference. On Thursday night, the Anchorage School Board voted to implement an immediate hiring freeze while it addresses the veto. The board had budgeted for a $560 BSA increase, thinking it was being cautious. Now that there's a $500 increase instead, ASD facing a $4.3 million budget gap. 'I cannot even imagine where $4.3 million is going to come from,' said Margo Bellamy, vice president of the ASD board. Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Peter Micciche, R-Soldotna, said the veto has a 'fairly significant impact' in his borough, where voters may be asked to pick up the slack. 'This is essentially a tax shift. It's the state not meeting a constitutional expectation requirement, if you will,' he said. Penny Vadla, treasurer of the Kenai Peninsula Borough school board, said the impacts in her area will be largest in sparsely populated places. 'We're closing theaters, we're losing library aides in some places where that means that library in a small school will close down,' she said. 'The impact on larger schools is that they might become larger without the capacity to put more students in that building.' State legislators could override Dunleavy's cuts, but Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, and Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, said they don't expect that lawmakers will be available until the 2026 Alaska Legislature begins in January. 'I'll certainly be getting on my phone and hitting the streets to urge our legislators here, in the borough, the Interior delegation, to override the veto,' Hopkins said. Micciche was critical of legislators' slow pace. Before becoming mayor, Micciche served as Senate president. Lawmakers, and particularly the presiding officers of the House and Senate, should have already scheduled a special session to consider a veto override, he said. 'You knew that there was going to be a second swipe by the governor,' Micciche said. If the Legislature stays on the sidelines, that would leave legal action as the only recourse for Alaskans seeking a quick reversal of the governor's action. Any legal argument is expected to revolve around the question of whether or not the governor's veto violates the Alaska Constitution's education clause. 'The Alaska Constitution clearly states that the legislators shall, by general law, establish and maintain a system of public schools open to all children of the state, so that language creates a constitutional obligation to provide adequate and equitable public education,' said Grady-Wyche. 'If the state fails to meet this obligation by consistently underfunding schools, closing essential programs and/or making access inequitable across regions, it can be legally challenged in court,' she said. Storm, of the Coalition for Education Equity, has been watching the governor and Legislature closely for years and talking with other education groups in the meantime. The coalition is a nonprofit that has successfully sued to increase state school funding in the past. Storm said she sees a national pattern at work, with conservative and limited-government groups and officials attempting to favor charter schools over traditional public schools. 'This is a coordinated attack on public education as a whole, as part of a national trend, or as Project 2025 — one hundred percent — and parents need to really start thinking about what's going to happen when public education goes away, and what that means for their kid, because it's not going to be pretty,' she said. Storm wasn't in the news conference with municipal officials, who focused on the local consequences of funding — or not — public education. Micciche, who said he's 'not a courtroom guy,' cautioned that any lawsuit comes with risks: What happens if the plaintiffs lose? 'You can get a ruling; it doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to get an outcome,' he said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Begich joins U.S. House Republicans in voting to claw back public broadcasting money
Rep. Nick Begich III, R-Alaska, speaks to the Alaska Legislature on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. At background are Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak (left) and Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham (right). (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) Rep. Nick Begich, R-Alaska, joined congressional Republicans in a 214-212 vote Thursday to claw back $1.1 billion in previously approved federal funding for public broadcasting, including tens of millions of dollars intended for radio and TV stations in Alaska. The clawback, formally known as a rescission vote, was requested by President Donald Trump and does not take effect unless also approved by the U.S. Senate within 45 days. The rescission would be enormously significant for Alaska's public broadcasters, particularly those in rural Alaska. High Country News has reported that many of Alaska's rural public radio stations are heavily dependent upon funding from the federal government. A rescission would be even more significant than a budget cut, because it would instantly affect funding that has already been approved and included in local budgets. If Congress were to cut budgets going forward, stations might have at least some time to adapt. Stations on St. Paul Island, in Unalakleet, Sand Point and Talkeetna are among those that receive more than 70% of their funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the federally funded agency targeted by Thursday's vote. Stations in Sitka, Ketchikan, Petersburg and Haines are among those that receive at least a third of their support from the CPB. At KUCB-FM in Unalaska, the station would instantly lose nearly half of its funding and would have to eliminate original programming. The same would take place at KYUK-FM in Bethel, which stands to lose almost 70% of its revenue. On June 6, Alaska Public Media published a listing of knock-on effects, including the loss of the only local reporters in many rural parts of the state. Even in the state's urban centers, the funding loss would have devastating effects. KNBA-FM in Anchorage could have to stop production of National Native News and Native America Calling, two nationally syndicated programs that broadcast Alaska Native and American Indian news. In Juneau, the loss of funding would affect Gavel Alaska, the public broadcasts that cover legislative hearings in the state Capitol and elsewhere. Begich, in a written statement, said the rescissions package is 'a necessary step for restoring fiscal responsibility in our nation.' During his election campaign last year, Alaska's lone member of the U.S. House of Representatives said reducing the national deficit was a priority. He recently voted for a bill that increases the national debt by an estimated $2.4 trillion. In Thursday's statement, Begich said that 'while rural communities have in the past been indirectly supported through state-sponsored media, we must acknowledge how far we have come in terms of connectivity since the birth of radio more than 120 years ago. Alaskan residents have embraced today's pervasive cellular, satellite, and wireline technologies, connecting rural communities to critical information and resources in rich and compelling ways. Importantly, however, emergency management funding from these budgets that is directed to rural communities has been preserved.' In addition to the impact on public broadcasters, the rescissions package eliminates billions of dollars in foreign aid. 'This rescissions package primarily targets ideologically-shaped foreign spending at USAID. Under both the Obama and Biden Administrations, USAID funding was misused to promote political and socially left policies abroad. This package helps refocus our support in ways that are consistent with America's core values, rather than promote the agendas of international bureaucracies and ideological NGOs,' Begich wrote. 'America has been built on principles of freedom of expression, self-determination, sovereignty, personal responsibility, and limited government. This package supports those values by rescinding $9.4 billion from programs that do not reflect the will of the taxpaying public,' his statement said. A poll commissioned by PBS earlier this year found that 65% of the public believes the public broadcaster is either adequately funded or underfunded. In the Senate, a simple majority vote will be needed to approve the rescissions package. Republicans occupy 53 seats in that chamber and Vice President J.D. Vance would cast any tiebreaking vote, meaning that four Republicans would have to oppose the funding reduction for it to fail. U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has said she supports funding public broadcasting. U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, while critical of NPR, has supported public broadcasting, particularly in rural Alaska. Trump has said that the rescissions request is the first of several that the White House budget office plans to submit. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Amid bleak state revenue forecast, Alaska Gov. Dunleavy vetoes millions in education funding
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy talks to reporters during a news conference on Monday, May 19, 2025. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed more than $122 million from Alaska's annual budget plan before signing it into law Thursday. The governor's vetoes fell heaviest on education, as Dunleavy eliminated more than $50 million from the state's per-student education funding formula and tens of millions intended for school maintenance. It's the first time in state history that a governor has failed to fully fund the education formula, a precedent-breaking act akin to former Gov. Bill Walker's decision in 2016 to veto part of the Permanent Fund dividend, which until then had been decided by a previously sacrosanct formula. Dunleavy also vetoed budget language designed to prevent excess spending from the state's Higher Education Investment Fund, which is ordinarily intended to pay for high school students' scholarships. The governor chose to take money from the fund rather than the reserves of the state's investment bank, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority. The governor announced his vetoes without a news conference or lengthy statement, instead releasing a prerecorded video earlier on Thursday stating that the vetoes, which cover both the state's annual operating budget bill and the capital budget bill, were required by the state's fiscal situation. Oil prices have fallen significantly over the past year, leading to dwindling state revenue. The governor's vetoes relied on a new state revenue forecast unavailable to lawmakers when they drafted the budget. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Alaskans plan widespread pro-democracy protests, joining national movement
Protesters gather outside the Anchorage Correctional Complex on June 11, 2025. It was the second consecutive day that protestors gathered at the jail site in response to Trump administration immigration actions. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon) As President Donald Trump orders the U.S. military into Los Angeles to confront protesters there, hundreds of Alaskans are preparing to join pro-democracy rallies planned for Saturday. At least 18 events are scheduled to take place in Alaska, and more than 1,500 are scheduled nationwide as part of the 'No Kings' movement, which is organizing to oppose Trump actions. Dave Musgrave is organizing an event in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, a region north of Anchorage that voted overwhelmingly for Trump last year. 'We want to raise concerns about what this administration is doing. It's very much an authoritarian overreach,' he said by phone. Saturday's events were originally scheduled to counter a military march in Washington, D.C., for Trump's 79th birthday and the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army. They've taken on a new tone since the president ordered the National Guard and the U.S. Marines to oppose protesters in Los Angeles. 'I think the scene is going to be a gathering of citizens concerned about what has been going on, most recently with Donald Trump sending troops to L.A.,' said Laura Stats, who has been helping organize an event in Juneau, Alaska's capital city. Protests were already taking place in Anchorage on Wednesday against the state's decision to accept people arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Forty-two people were arrested outside the state and flown here by federal officials, according to the Alaska Department of Corrections. The small demonstration taking place on a weekday is expected to be followed by a much larger event on Saturday, outside the Anchorage offices of Alaska's three-person congressional delegation. That demonstration will be followed by a march to the Anchorage Park Strip, where Juneteenth celebrations will be taking place. Lu Dyer is communications director for Stand UP Alaska, which is helping organize the event. 'We're protesting Donald Trump violating democratic norms and fanning the flames of fascism in this country, as well (as) on behalf of all the vulnerable folks in this state and outside of it that are falling victim to the president's self-inflicted chaos,' they said. In Juneau, the rally will take place near the city's landmark whale statue. In Palmer, it will be at the intersection of the Glenn Highway and the Palmer-Wasilla Highway. Other towns, including Kotzebue, Nome, Petersburg, Homer, Haines, Glennallen, Fairbanks, Sitka and Ketchikan, are holding their own events, with a full listing of times and locations on the 'No Kings' website. Betsy Brennan, a Nome resident, said organizers there are 'trying to be a presence … and reflect the rallies going on nationwide in a peaceful manner.' Some pro-Trump commentators have accused protesters of being paid for their participation. 'I'm just like, 'You've got to be kidding me,'' said Courtney Moore, a volunteer with Stand UP Alaska, describing one false statement she heard. 'No, I don't get paid. I hate all of this for free. I'm an OG Trump hater since 2016.' Musgrave, who plans to be in Palmer, said he expects events across the state to be peaceful. 'What you're going to find at these rallies are granddads and grannies,' he said. 'These are people that never organized before, and they're worried about their kids and their grandkids … and said, 'I just can't abide this.'' Stats, in Juneau, said she agrees with Musgrave's description. 'We're just regular people. We're just regular folks who want a decent life for our children, for our grandchildren, for our neighbors, for our friends, for people who came to this country in good faith — for people who want a decent life. It feels like that's what's being taken away from us,' she said. Some people who plan to participate in the weekend's rallies said they're worried about the possibility of violence by Trump supporters. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has called up that state's National Guard for potential action against protesters in that state. Jessica Bowers, a spokesperson for Gov. Mike Dunleavy, said that when it comes to Alaska, 'At this time, no Alaska National Guard personnel have been activated, nor has a request for activation been made.' Austin McDaniel, communications director for the Alaska Department of Public Safety, said that agency isn't aware of any dangerous or illegal behavior planned as part of the weekend's events. 'Alaskans regularly demonstrate their First Amendment rights peacefully, and we expect the protests this weekend will be no different,' he said. In Anchorage, officers from the city's police department will be near that city's protest and available to help if needed, said Christopher Barraza, deputy director of community relations for APD. 'As far as we're currently aware, they're all supposed to be peaceful protests, but there's always the chance that something could happen,' he said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
