Domestic Policy:
Immigration Reform
The Immigration system of the United States needs to be reformed. The United States immigration system is extremely broken. Individuals caught in United States immigration issues are going to experience a lot of problems. Currently, United States immigration issues are run thru Immigration and Customs Enforcement, of the Department of Homeland Security. Children and adults have been put in cages as they are awaiting to know their sentence and while they are waiting for their immigration hearings to take place in front of a federal immigration judge. This is absolutely outrageous, unacceptable, and this issue does raise human rights concerns.
I support competent immigration facilities being in operation. I do not support children or even adults being put in cages in immigration facilities. I do not support private companies taking control of immigration centers, such as GEO, MTC or others. Typically, private contractors of immigration detention centers throughout the United States have some extremely shady and some extremely dark histories behind the operation of immigration facilities. So, I support a federal ban on private corporations running immigration facilities.
Competent Immigration Hearings
In immigration hearings in the United States, immigrants are not given direct access to legal assistance unless the immigrant pays for it. This sadly includes children and young adults. So, babies often have to go in front of a judge in an immigration proceeding without counsel. The government is always represented by an attorney. This issue raises some serious and some extremely concerning constitutional issues as well as international law compliance related issues. I believe that immigrants that go before a United States Judge need to be given counsel if they are unable to afford counsel, especially in cases where the immigrant is younger than 18 years and is claiming asylum.
Criminal Justice Reform
Judiciary: It is extremely easy for a person to be nominated to serve as a United States Federal Judge at a United States District Court or at a United States Appeals Court. Once a person gets their nominated approved by the Senate Committee on the Judiciary and after the person starts serving as a federal judge, there are currently not many ways that attorneys or even members of the general public can be ensured that their court is competent, fair, not biased and not prejudiced. That needs to change. Members of the general public should not have to worry about whether a person that is in the position of deciding constitutional issues involving the Supreme Law of the Land is competent, biased or prejudiced. I believe that all judges, whether they be on a State or a Federal Court, needs to be competent and should be free from bias, prejudiced and discriminatory conduct while they are serving on the bench.
Protecting the Rights of Minorities
LGBT: I fully, faithfully and proudly support humane and dignified treatment for members of the LGBT community or individuals that are in some type of that type of associated relationship. I believe that individuals in the LGBT community have and should have an unalienable right to life, liberty and to obtain a good quality pursuit of happiness everywhere they go.
Native American Indians: The United States has an extremely bad procedural history when it comes to the treatment of the Native American Indians in the United States. Sadly, the United States thru early colonialism sole, robbed, beat up, targeted and discriminated against the Native American Indians that were on the North American Continent and even forced the Native American Indians onto reservations. The United States to this day does not recognize some Native American tribes that were here before the formation of the United States. That needs to change! I support the Native American Indians getting their rights back. I also support the Native American Indians having their own sovereignty and I further believe that the Native American Indians should not have to live in poverty on reservations, in which many do today. I support many reforms that will positively impact the Native American Indians in the United States.
Education
Quality of Education: Individuals that cannot afford to go to a private school should have a right to receive great and competent educational services at public educational institutions. Public educational institutions that receive federal funds should be more focused on making sure that students learn and are given life skills verses forcing students to take standardized tests.
Freedom of Speech and Due Process: Protecting the freedom of speech and the due process rights of students at public educational institutions at all levels are extremely important to me. All students at public educational institutions, including institutions of higher education, are entitled to the protection of their speech and if a campus wants to prosecute a student for violating a rule in a student disciplinary proceeding, that student has procedural and substantive due process rights that should protect the student from harm. Public educational institutions, including those of higher education, that violate the freedom of speech rights or the due process rights of students, should loose their qualified immunity in court.
Intelligence Reform
It is of no secret that the United States Intelligence Community needs major reform.
Central Intelligence Agency: The Central Intelligence Agency needs major reforms. One huge reform that needs to occur with regard as to the agency is being on the same page as the White House. The White House needs to be on the same page as the Central Intelligence Agency with regard as to reforming a particular area of the word. Political instability in the United States has caused and has lead to the creation of instability in countries that former White House Administrations wanted to initially reform. Afghanistan is a perfect example as to this issue. I further believe that if the United States wants to reform a certain part of the world, I believe that the United States needs to stick with the goal.
Fusion Centers: I support ending and defunding fusion centers throughout the United States. Fusion Centers are a great constitutional concern. Throughout the United States, Fusion Centers have been known to assist in monitoring activists, advocates for social change and individuals that have and that are engaging in constitutionally protected speech, by and thru social media monitoring surveillance, assisting in other types of surveillance, and taking other measures. These raise some serious constitutional concerns. For example, in the city that I live in, a major fusion center that operates is the Austin Regional Intelligence Center. According to leaked documents, the Austin Regional Intelligence Center has been monitoring the social media accounts of activists and has been providing law enforcement at the state and at the federal level, including officials with the National Guard, with information on protests occurring, the identities of the organizers of the protests, some of which have been members of the Austin City Council, as well as an analysis of the individuals that are leading the constitutionally protected activities. In a Constitutional Republic, fusion centers pose an extremely huge risk of violating the constitutional rights of activists, advocates for social change and others that are purely seeking to engage in constitutionally protected activities.