Latest news with #Quakers
New York Post
3 days ago
- New York Post
LI driver burns to death crashing into historic Quaker meeting house — and cops won't rule out possible hate crime
A Long Island driver burned to death early Thursday when his car burst into flames after smashing into a historic Quaker meeting house — and cops are not ruling out the crash was a potential hate crime. The unidentified SUV operator swerved off the road at high speed and crashed into the Quaker Society of Friends Meeting House in Manhasset off Northern Boulevard in Nassau County just before 6 a.m., instantly engulfing the vehicle in flames, authorities said. The white car was registered to a 41-year-old man from New Rochelle in Westchester County, but authorities could not confirm if the owner was behind the wheel at the time. 4 Authorities could not confirm that the owner of the car was behind the wheel at the time of the crash. Facebook/Manhasset-Lakeville Volunteer Fire Department 4 The meeting-house site dates back to 1650, when a structure was originally built there and obtained by local colonial Quakers in 1703. Eyewitness News ABC7NY Cops said they are investigating why the driver swerved into the historic building and refused to rule anything out, including whether the incident could have been a targeted attack or a hate crime. Arson investigators and the county bomb squad were on the scene backing up the fire marshal and detectives. The fire from the car badly damaged the left side of the building. The meeting-house site dates back to 1650, when a structure was originally built there and obtained by local colonial Quakers in 1703. The meeting house burned down during the Revolutionary War but was rebuilt in the 1800s, and the property is also home to Long Island's oldest and largest oak tree. The site is listed in the US National Register of Historic Places. 4 Crews arrived and found a vehicle which had struck the building and fully engulfed in flames. Facebook/Manhasset-Lakeville Volunteer Fire Department 4 The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. Eyewitness News ABC7NY 'It's a special place,' said Dick Lopez, a member of the Quaker community, to CBS News. He said the home is used as a religious meeting place and a home-schooling center for local Quakers and a variety of art and culture programs the community holds. Firefighters from four departments responded to the scene: The Manhasset-Lakeville Fire Department first and then firefighters from Port Washington, Plandome and Great Neck.
The Guardian
09-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
John Marjoram obituary
My friend John Marjoram, who has died aged 86, was the Green party's longest serving councillor – in Stroud, Gloucestershire. First elected to Stroud district council in 1986, he was one of the party's first two councillors: the other, Richard Lawson, was elected on the same night in Congresbury in Somerset. During his 35 years as a councillor, the Greens came to a power-sharing agreement with Labour and the Liberal Democrats on Stroud district council, which led John to become vice-chair of the council's planning committee. He was also mayor of Stroud, the first Green mayor in the country, for 10 years. In his other life John worked for much of his career at Home Farm Trust in nearby Frocester, teaching gardening to adults with special needs. John was born in Plaistow, east London, to Albert, a clerk, and Clara (nee Headlen). He went to Great Baddow high school in Chelmsford, Essex, before training to be a youth leader at Fircroft College in Birmingham and then the National College for the Training of Youth Leaders in Leicester. After a childhood overshadowed by the second world war he became a Quaker and a conscientious objector. All his life he was a peace activist, leading marches and demonstrations in Stroud and organising coaches to London for national peace marches. His other passions were the environment and architecture, and as a councillor he campaigned to protect some of Stroud's most precious places and buildings. John had a brilliant feel for political strategy, always understanding how his party could maximise power and build support. This led him to found the Association of Green Councillors (AGC), which is now more than 800-strong. I first met John in 2000 at an AGC conference, and as I worked towards becoming a councillor in 2003, he was always a source of inspiration and wisdom, as well as being an incredibly warm and generous person. His stories about how he represented people in Stroud were a joy to hear: when he was mayor, for instance, he instigated a mayor's bench, situated in the town centre, where he would sit each week encouraging passersby to come and chat to him. He was a celebrated campaigner and inspired many of the current generation of Green politicians to stand for election. John retired from his gardening work in 2010 but kept on with active politics until 2021, when illness forced him to step down. After that he was made Stroud's first honorary freeman in 2023. His spirit lives on in the beautiful buildings and green spaces around Stroud that he helped to save, as well as the strong power-base of the local Greens, who now run a minority administration with 23 councillors. John is survived by his second wife, Laura Ridolfi, an art therapist whom he married in 2014, two daughters, Saskia and Cleo, from his first marriage to April Foster, which ended in divorce, his grandchildren Joe, Fred, Lois and Dexter and great-granddaughters Edith and Melissa.
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Writing workshop to take place at historic Settle Meeting House
A writing workshop is set to take place at the historic Settle Meeting House. Back in the 17th century, groups of dissenters grew dissatisfied with the established church (as explained by a spokesperson for the workshop). One such group, the 'Seekers after Truth,' became known as Quakers. Among them was William Dewsbury, encounters with whom led to the 'Settle Meeting,' and, later, the Quakers established the Settle Meeting House. A workshop in that very house, opposite Victoria Hall in Settle, will take place on Wednesday, June 4. The event's facilitator, Ann Algie, is an admirer of the Quakers. Though she has roots in Settle, she has spent the past twelve years in France, delivering writing workshops for aspiring and experienced writers. She said: "June 4 is International Day of Innocent Child Victims of Aggression, and I thought it would be a meaningful day to run a workshop. "Given everything going on in the world, what better place than the peaceful environment of the Quaker Meeting House? "I've been running these 'Wild Writing Workshops' in France for a while, and thought: why not try one in my own hometown?" Workshop attendees should bring a pen and paper with them. There will also be tea and cake "if you're well behaved." For more information, visit call 07898 880458, or email
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Immigration arrests in courthouses have become the new deportation tool, stripping migrants of a legal process
After Julio David Pérez Rodríguez attended an immigration hearing last week in pursuit of a refugee status in the U.S., the Cuban national was stopped by undercover agents at an elevator, handcuffed and taken into custody. 'If I have done nothing illegal, why do you have me handcuffed?' the 22-year-old implored in Spanish amid tears. The arrest in Miami was captured in an emotional video aired by Noticias Telemundo. 'We're coming to this country to seek freedom. ... What is happening with this country?' he said before plainclothes officers whisked him away. Pérez Rodríguez is one of dozens of immigrants caught in similar dragnets drawn in cities around the country since last week, as the reality of President Donald Trump's mass deportation operation penetrates further into American families' consciousness. Many of those who saw loved ones handcuffed and taken away had accompanied their family members to ongoing immigration processes seeking asylum or hoping to make a case before a judge to stave off deportation, a legal process long afforded to immigrants and spelled out for immigration judges in court practice manuals. The arrests are happening immediately after immigration cases are dismissed or closed, leading some people to express joy, give thanks in prayer or celebrate, only to have all that replaced by sorrow, fear and anger, as they are handcuffed and taken into custody, said Billy Botch, an observer who works for the American Friends Service Committee Florida, a social justice nonprofit formed by Quakers. "We are talking about people who are already complying with the legal court process and who have claims of asylum or have other legal protection," Gregory Chen, senior director of government relations for American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), told NBC News. "They should have a right to a fair day in court." Trump campaigned for the presidency on a pledge to focus on eradicating violent criminals, often invoking the names of crime victims of immigrants illegally in the country. But Chen said that, with arrests taking place in courthouses and in immigration and citizenship services offices, 'the dragnet is sweeping in foreign nationals of all stripes, people who are members of our communities, who have been here for a long time, who have family here, who have jobs here. ... Those are the people who are really getting targeted now in mass numbers.' Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the Trump administration is reinstating the rule of law after President Joe Biden adopted policies that "allowed millions of unvetted illegal aliens to be let loose on American streets." But immigration attorneys and advocates said the dragnets appear to be an attempt by the Trump administration to bypass constitutional due process protections for immigrants. Based on observations by attorneys and advocates who have been monitoring the arrests, Chen said Immigration and Customs Enforcement trial attorneys are showing up in immigration courts where people have scheduled hearings and asking the judges to dismiss the cases. "They are doing it in most cases verbally, even though the practice manual of the court typically requires a written motion," Chen said, "and they are asking that these be granted immediately, even though people are required in the practice manual to be given time to respond." Similar arrests have been witnessed at field offices of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which handles such things as applications for citizenship or legal permanent residency, also known as green cards, as well as visas for workers and other benefits. "There have been arrests in several cities at those USCIS interviews," Chen said. He said AILA and immigration attorneys are instructing people at the court hearings to insist on a written motion from the government spelling out their dismissal request, to ask for time to respond to the motion — 10 days, according to the court manual — and to ask judges to not immediately rule on the government motions to dismiss. Some immigration judges, who are part of the administrative branch of government under the Department of Justice and not the judicial branch, appear to be going along with ICE requests and dismissing cases. "Some judges are granting the motions immediately, even without a written motion and not giving a person 10 days to have that due process to understand and to respond to the motion," Chen said. With the case dismissed, plainclothes officers who have been stationed in hallways or other locations arrest them and set up the immigrants for accelerated deportation, which is known as expedited removal. Criminality often isn't an issue in these immigration arrests. Instead, the criteria seem to be to capture immigrants who came under the Biden administration and haven't been living in the country more than two years. The Trump administration has eliminated many of the programs that allowed immigrants to come to seek asylum or allowed them into the country through parole. Administration officials deem the people who used these programs as having entered the U.S. illegally, a misdemeanor. McLaughlin, the DHS assistant secretary, said Biden disregarded the fact that most of those people are subject to expedited removal and released millions of immigrants, "including violent criminals," with a notice to appear before an immigration judge. "If they have a valid claim, they will continue in immigration proceedings, but if no valid claim can be found, aliens will be subject to a swift deportation," she said. Expedited removal typically has been reserved for people who are apprehended less than 100 miles from the border and people who are in the country for two years or less. But the Trump administration is using expedited removal everywhere in the country. Chen said the way the dragnets are playing out is troubling, because of the lack of due process and because ICE attorneys are not being required to present written motions explaining their basis for dismissal. "We are also concerned that there is a high level of cooperation between the courts and ICE, which is increasingly appearing to be a cooperative law enforcement operation where the judges are making these speedy decisions to dismiss the cases so that ICE can take them into custody and rapidly deport them," he said. DHS did not respond to questions about whether immigration judges had been instructed to close cases and, if so, provide copies of those instructions. Botch, the hearings observer from American Friends Service Committee Florida, said a Miami judge refused one person's request for their case not to be dismissed, saying, "We all have bosses." Botch said another judge stood out because he denied government attorneys' dismissal requests in six of seven cases and granted the immigrants six-day continuances, giving them time to find attorneys. He said most of the immigration cases he observed in court dated back to 2022. The arrests of people who are seeking asylum or relief is a waste of law enforcement resources, Chen said, because ICE will have to give them a "credible fear" interview. Such interviews determine if the person has reason to fear persecution due to race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion if returned to their home country. Immigrants who already are in the asylum process have a good chance of passing the credible fear interview and will end up back in front of a judge for a hearing on the asylum claim, Chen said. "You are seeing this dramatic scale-up of not only ICE law enforcement but several other agencies coming into these courts; that's a huge expenditure of resources, taking them to detention, and expending taxpayer resources to detain these people already complying with the law," Chen said. According to attorneys, ICE officers have been clearing courtrooms during hearings, which are open to the public, and threatening with arrests or intimidating people who try to observe the proceedings or arrests. In some cases, they've forced closure of courtrooms even when hearings are public, Chen said. The immigration court arrests have put immigrants on edge, shocking and panicking those with pending cases and their families. On Tuesday, when Peréz Rodríguez showed up to his hearing, another 20 or so people went through similar scenarios in different floors of the building, said Karla De Anda, a legal observer who has been watching the arrests. Among those arrested was a New York City high school student who ICE took into custody after his hearing last week, prompting a clamor of protests. Arrests have been reported last week and this week at courthouses in Miami; San Francisco; Sacramento, California; San Antonio; and several other cities. On Wednesday night, protesters clashed with police as they tried to interrupt arrests at a New York City building where immigration courts are located, The City news site reported. Chen said the law enforcement presence at courthouses has become "essentially a cooperative arm" and is intimidating. He said it is going to frighten people from coming to court appearances "when they have a legal right to their fair day in court." "It's going to undermine the rule of law that Americans expect," he said. This article was originally published on
NBC News
30-05-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
Immigration arrests in courthouses have become the new deportation tool, stripping migrants of a legal process
After Julio David Pérez Rodríguez attended an immigration hearing last week in pursuit of a refugee status in the U.S., the Cuban national was stopped by undercover agents at an elevator, handcuffed and taken into custody. 'If I have done nothing illegal, why do you have me handcuffed?' the 22-year-old implored in Spanish amid tears. The arrest in Miami was captured in an emotional video aired by Noticias Telemundo. 'We're coming to this country to seek freedom. ... What is happening with this country?' he said before plainclothes officers whisked him away. Pérez Rodríguez is one of dozens of immigrants caught in similar dragnets drawn in cities around the country since last week, as the reality of President Donald Trump's mass deportation operation penetrates further into American families' consciousness. Many of those who saw loved ones handcuffed and taken away had accompanied their family members to ongoing immigration processes seeking asylum or hoping to make a case before a judge to stave off deportation, a legal process long afforded to immigrants and spelled out for immigration judges in court practice manuals. The arrests are happening immediately after immigration cases are dismissed or closed, leading some people to express joy, give thanks in prayer or celebrate, only to have all that replaced by sorrow, fear and anger, as they are handcuffed and taken into custody, said Billy Botch, an observer who works for the American Friends Service Committee Florida, a social justice nonprofit formed by Quakers. "We are talking about people who are already complying with the legal court process and who have claims of asylum or have other legal protection," Gregory Chen, senior director of government relations for American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), told NBC News. "They should have a right to a fair day in court." Trump campaigned for the presidency on a pledge to focus on eradicating violent criminals, often invoking the names of crime victims of immigrants illegally in the country. But Chen said that, with arrests taking place in courthouses and in immigration and citizenship services offices, 'the dragnet is sweeping in foreign nationals of all stripes, people who are members of our communities, who have been here for a long time, who have family here, who have jobs here. ... Those are the people who are really getting targeted now in mass numbers.' Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the Trump administration is reinstating the rule of law after President Joe Biden adopted policies that "allowed millions of unvetted illegal aliens to be let loose on American streets." But immigration attorneys and advocates said the dragnets appear to be an attempt by the Trump administration to bypass constitutional due process protections for immigrants. Based on observations by attorneys and advocates who have been monitoring the arrests, Chen said Immigration and Customs Enforcement trial attorneys are showing up in immigration courts where people have scheduled hearings and asking the judges to dismiss the cases. "They are doing it in most cases verbally, even though the practice manual of the court typically requires a written motion," Chen said, "and they are asking that these be granted immediately, even though people are required in the practice manual to be given time to respond." Similar arrests have been witnessed at field offices of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which handles such things as applications for citizenship or legal permanent residency, also known as green cards, as well as visas for workers and other benefits. "There have been arrests in several cities at those USCIS interviews," Chen said. He said AILA and immigration attorneys are instructing people at the court hearings to insist on a written motion from the government spelling out their dismissal request, to ask for time to respond to the motion — 10 days, according to the court manual — and to ask judges to not immediately rule on the government motions to dismiss. Some immigration judges, who are part of the administrative branch of government under the Department of Justice and not the judicial branch, appear to be going along with ICE requests and dismissing cases. "Some judges are granting the motions immediately, even without a written motion and not giving a person 10 days to have that due process to understand and to respond to the motion," Chen said. With the case dismissed, plainclothes officers who have been stationed in hallways or other locations arrest them and set up the immigrants for accelerated deportation, which is known as expedited removal. Criminality often isn't an issue in these immigration arrests. Instead, the criteria seem to be to capture immigrants who came under the Biden administration and haven't been living in the country more than two years. Rendering legal pathways illegal The Trump administration has eliminated many of the programs that allowed immigrants to come to seek asylum or allowed them into the country through parole. Administration officials deem the people who used these programs as having entered the U.S. illegally, a misdemeanor. McLaughlin, the DHS assistant secretary, said Biden disregarded the fact that most of those people are subject to expedited removal and released millions of immigrants, "including violent criminals," with a notice to appear before an immigration judge. "If they have a valid claim, they will continue in immigration proceedings, but if no valid claim can be found, aliens will be subject to a swift deportation," she said. Expedited removal typically has been reserved for people who are apprehended less than 100 miles from the border and people who are in the country for two years or less. But the Trump administration is using expedited removal everywhere in the country. Chen said the way the dragnets are playing out is troubling, because of the lack of due process and because ICE attorneys are not being required to present written motions explaining their basis for dismissal. "We are also concerned that there is a high level of cooperation between the courts and ICE, which is increasingly appearing to be a cooperative law enforcement operation where the judges are making these speedy decisions to dismiss the cases so that ICE can take them into custody and rapidly deport them," he said. DHS did not respond to questions about whether immigration judges had been instructed to close cases and, if so, provide copies of those instructions. Botch, the hearings observer from American Friends Service Committee Florida, said a Miami judge refused one person's request for their case not to be dismissed, saying, "We all have bosses." Botch said another judge stood out because he denied government attorneys' dismissal requests in six of seven cases and granted the immigrants six-day continuances, giving them time to find attorneys. He said most of the immigration cases he observed in court dated back to 2022. 'Already complying with the law' The arrests of people who are seeking asylum or relief is a waste of law enforcement resources, Chen said, because ICE will have to give them a "credible fear" interview. Such interviews determine if the person has reason to fear persecution due to race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion if returned to their home country. Immigrants who already are in the asylum process have a good chance of passing the credible fear interview and will end up back in front of a judge for a hearing on the asylum claim, Chen said. "You are seeing this dramatic scale-up of not only ICE law enforcement but several other agencies coming into these courts; that's a huge expenditure of resources, taking them to detention, and expending taxpayer resources to detain these people already complying with the law," Chen said. According to attorneys, ICE officers have been clearing courtrooms during hearings, which are open to the public, and threatening with arrests or intimidating people who try to observe the proceedings or arrests. In some cases, they've forced closure of courtrooms even when hearings are public, Chen said. The immigration court arrests have put immigrants on edge, shocking and panicking those with pending cases and their families. On Tuesday, when Peréz Rodríguez showed up to his hearing, another 20 or so people went through similar scenarios in different floors of the building, said Karla De Anda, a legal observer who has been watching the arrests. Among those arrested was a New York City high school student who ICE took into custody after his hearing last week, prompting a clamor of protests. Arrests have been reported last week and this week at courthouses in Miami; San Francisco; Sacramento, California; San Antonio; and several other cities. On Wednesday night, protesters clashed with police as they tried to interrupt arrests at a New York City building where immigration courts are located, The City news site reported. Chen said the law enforcement presence at courthouses has become "essentially a cooperative arm" and is intimidating. He said it is going to frighten people from coming to court appearances "when they have a legal right to their fair day in court." "It's going to undermine the rule of law that Americans expect," he said.
