What happens when the wrong people get deported
Editor's note: Peter Bregman is chief executive of Bregman Partners Inc., a global management consulting firm, and the author of "Point B: A Short Guide to Leading a Big Change." He writes a weekly column, How We Work, for The Harvard Business Review.
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Peter Bregman
Special to AC360°
When 11 Christian clergy get arrested in New York City for a non violent protest, it may be worth, at the very least, raising an eyebrow. But when 1,300 petitioners and 50 organizations, including the New Sanctuary Movement and Families for Freedom, join in supporting their cause, well, it deserves more attention than an eyebrow. What is it that’s making all these peaceful people and organizations so upset?
To understand that, you need to meet Jean Montrevil, a green card holding resident of the U.S. since 1986. Only you can’t meet him. He’s being detained for deportation to Haiti.
Ah, you may be thinking, good. Maybe that’ll help protect our country from terrorism. After all, look at Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab the Nigerian citizen who was charged with trying to blow up a transcontinental airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day. Perhaps we should be glad that immigration officials are finally being a little more on top of things.
Only they’re not. Because Jean, like many others deported recently, is the wrong person. I’ve met Jean a few times and he’s a good guy. He’s married to a U.S. citizen and they have four children who are U.S. citizens. He runs a small business which employs others. He pays his taxes, supports his family, and is active in his church, Judson Memorial Church, which my wife also attends.
So why are they bothering with him? Because more than 20 years ago Jean was convicted on a drug charge in Virginia.
Live Blog from the Anchor Desk 01/07/10
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Tonight on 360, we’ll show you exactly what TSA officials are looking for – and what they actually see – when they use full body scanners to screen airline passengers.
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Good Tidings from The Elephant Men
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Charles McNair
Author
Order is restored, stars aligned. The Alabama Crimson Tide reigns as national champion of college football. A valiant effort by a worthy adversary, the Texas Longhorns, fell short, and the Tide rolled.
Those of us with Alabama affections know, in our fervent hearts, that more went on the night of January 7 than a football game. Here was something close to a primal annual rite, visible on television everywhere electricity exists.
We gathered Thursday night around the electronic fire. Like tribesmen. The Elephant Men.
The Alabamians.
We ate some red meat, drank some beer. We ran through some tribal lore from our native land, shared stories that link us and our families and friends in our uniquely colorful history. We’re men of reason, but we employed every superstitious device we know: The same set of clothes, unwashed, we wore to the last gathering. The same halftime order of lucky chicken wings. We were as careful about seating arrangements as those who plan state dinners on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Wherever we sat the last time the Crimson Tide won … that’s where we sat Thursday night.
We’d been in the same seats at the same table in the same tavern for 13 games in a row this year. The University of Alabama football team – that fabled Crimson Tide – ran the table in 2009 on its way to the national championship.
We suddenly superstitious men who met at Manuel’s Tavern in Atlanta understand our behavior is shockingly counterintuitive. None of us carries lucky charms (that I know of). None of us makes our life decisions based on divinings of chicken entrails. No rattlesnake rattles or crystals.
Evening Buzz: What full body scanners really show
Cate Vojdik
AC360° Writer
Tonight on 360, we’ll show you exactly what TSA officials are looking for – and what they actually see – when they use full body scanners to screen airline passengers. The TSA is planning to install hundreds more of the devices in airports. In theory, the machines would have been able to detect the explosives the alleged Christmas Day bomber hid in his underwear. But some people are arguing the images the scanners produce are too invasive, even indecent, and an invasion of privacy. We’re arranged for a demonstration. Anderson is going to see for himself just how much detail the screeners capture. Will he be able to detect a weapon when it shows up on the screen?
Fallout from the failed Christmas Day attack continues. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the man accused of trying to blow up the Northwest Airlines jet over Detroit was arraigned today and pleaded not guilty to all six charges. There are also new developments in the investigation. We’ll get you caught up on the latest.
In politics, Sarah Palin is making news again with a new power play. She spurned an invitation to speak at next month’s annual Conservative Political Action Conference, considered a must-attend event for the conservative establishment. Instead, she’ll be speaking at the first-ever National Tea Party Convention, where she’ll reportedly collect a big speaking fee. But the convention’s pricey registration fee is raising questions about whether the Tea Party movement is in danger of losing its grass-roots identity. What’s driving Palin’s decision? The raw politics tonight.
In our “What’s Next” series, Suze Orman tells us what she sees coming down the pike in personal finance. Will 2010 be kinder to Americans’ financial security?
See you at 10 p.m. eastern!
Financial Dispatch: Jobs are back! Oh, wait a minute…
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Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer
Is the glass half empty? Or half full?
We lost far more jobs than we expected last month. But at the same time, the government now says we actually added jobs in November - snapping a streak of losses that goes back nearly two years to the start of the recession.
Employers cut 85,000 jobs in December, but the Labor Dept. revised its numbers for November to a net gain of 4,000 jobs from a loss of 11,000.
The unemployment rate stayed at 10% in the December, which was in-line with forecasts.
Construction and manufacturing, two sectors of the economy particularly hard hit during the recession, again suffered large job losses in December. Temporary help services and health care continued to add jobs.
The economy has lost 7.2 million jobs since the start of 2008. Losses for 2009 alone came to 4.2 million jobs, the most in one year since the government started tracking payrolls in 1939.
Beat 360° 1/8/09
Ready for today's Beat 360°? Everyday we post a picture you provide the caption and our staff will join in too. Tune in tonight at 10pm to see if you are our favorite! Here is the 'Beat 360°' pic:
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano speaks as Assistant to the President for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security John Brennan listens during a media briefing at the White House January 7, 2010 in Washington, DC.
Have fun with it. We're looking forward to your captions! Make sure to include your name, city, state (or country) so we can post your comment.
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Suze Orman's book: Women & Money
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Program Note: Suze Orman will talk to Anderson tonight and she'll answer your questions. AC360° 10 p.m. ET.
AC360°
Suze is back on AC360° tonight to answer your questions. She's weighing in on what to expect for the upcoming decade.
Suze's book, " Women & Money," was released on January 5.
And check out the new iPhone App for Suze's book here. Download it today!
And for those of you in New York City next week, Suze will be talking at BARNES & NOBLE, Union Square at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 14. (33 East 17th Street, NYC, NY). She'll be signing books and answering your questions.
Read this excerpt from here book:
1
FOR WOMEN ONLY
I never thought I’d write a book about money just for women. I never thought it was necessary. So then why am I doing just that in my eighth book? And why now? Let me explain.
All my previous books were written with the belief that gender is not a factor on any level in mastering the nuts and bolts of smart financial management. Women can invest, save, and handle debt just as well and skillfully as any man. I still believe that–why would anyone think differently?
So imagine my surprise when I learned that some of the people closest to me in my life were in the dark about their own finances. Clueless. Or, in some cases, willfully resisting doing what they knew needed to be done. I’m talking about smart, competent, accomplished women who present a face to the world that is pure confidence and capability. Do you mean to tell me that I, Suze Orman, who make my living solving the financial problems of total strangers, couldn’t spot the trouble brewing so close to home? I don’t think I’m blind; I just think that these women became very, very good at hiding their troubles from me. Why not? They had years of practice hiding them from themselves.
Frankly, I was shocked. It was a real reckoning. It began with a friend, a very high-powered businesswoman who handles millions and millions of dollars a year, who refused to sign will and trust documents I’d helped her to prepare. I can’t tell you why, but those papers sat on her desk for three years—she clearly had some kind of block that prevented her from simply signing her name and having the documents notarized. Even as I write, she has still not completed them. Then another friend, a woman with some amazing professional credits under her belt, broke down and confessed that she had rung up such staggering bills over the years that she was too terrified to tell anyone and had no idea how to pay them off. Not long after, I heard from yet another friend who finally woke up to the fact that her employer was paying her significantly less than every other executive of comparable rank in her company. Her division was one of the most profitable and consistent earners for the company, but still she just accepted the minimal increases her boss would hand her every year at review time. And even now, out of some misguided loyalty, she was reluctant to leave the employer that took advantage of her year after year.
What was going on here?
GOP aides clash over Michael Steele
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Peter Hamby
CNN
GOP tempers flared during a routine conference call when House and Senate leadership aides confronted Republican National Committee staffers over recent comments by party chairman Michael Steele.
At issue was Steele's prediction earlier this week during his nationwide book tour that the Republican Party would not take back the House in November - comments that infuriated Republican strategists on Capitol Hill, who decided to broach the topic during the Wednesday call.
The dispute - first reported by Hotline On Call - occurred on a daily strategy call with aides from Republican leadership offices in the House and Senate, along with RNC officials.
Interactive: Air travel threats and screening around the world
CNN
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration is beginning enhanced screening procedures for U.S.-bound air passengers traveling through "state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest."
View more of these countries here.
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