American Civil Liberties Union

• According to the lawsuit filed by attorneys with Burns Charest LLP and the Kick Law Firm, the companies provide personal information to hundreds of law enforcement agencies, bypassing the typical legal requirements such as court orders, subpoenas, or warrants, and done without the knowledge and consent of the individuals using the services.
• The lawsuit alleges the two money transfer providers, together with Forcepoint and TRAC, are violating the California Consumer Privacy Rights Act and the California constitutional right to privacy.
• “It is unconscionable that these companies are caving to governmental pressure and knowingly providing this information in violation of the law and their own policies,” says Chase Hilton of Burns Charest, who filed the lawsuit with co-counsel Taras Kick of the Kick Law Firm.
• The United States is one of the largest remitters and, notably, Mexico received the second highest level of remittances in 2022.

• Perhaps more concerning, 65% of Americans agree that when a crisis occurs, they do not generally have funds available to give right away.
• "During a crisis, the desire to provide aid is so strong," said Rebecca Moffett, president of Vanguard Charitable.
• American donors with a charitable giving budget give more dollars and are more likely to support disaster relief than those who do not have a charitable giving budget.
• Vanguard Charitable donors have issued 10,578 grants totaling $67.5 million to more than 1,300 unique nonprofits focused on disaster relief over the past year.

• Mercury Films , a digital cinema production company, today announced the Kansas film festival debut of Penitentia , a feature film written and directed by Chris Lawing, at the upcoming Tallgrass Film Festival.
• View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230912701545/en/
  Attorneys Ale Villacaño and Marvin Weissman confront prison officials in feature film Penitentia.
• Also playing at Tallgrass Film Festival is Liberty, Lawing’s short film crime thriller.
• For tickets to the Tallgrass Film Festival, visit https://tff23.eventive.org/passes/buy .

• President Joe Biden has been negotiating a new deal with Mexico in the hope of mediating the long-running immigration crisis on the US southern border.
• According to Customs and Border Protection, border crossings from Mexico to the United States have recently fallen from 10,000 a day to approximately 3,500 a day.

Mexico’s role

• Alex Miller, director of the advocacy group Immigration Justice Campaign, called the changes “a stark reversal of the administration’s stated commitment to restoring access to asylum”.
• Former Democrat Representative for Texas 16th congressional district Beto O’Rourke tweeted that the ruling was “the right decision”.
• Both immigration advocates and those calling for stricter guidelines have attacked the Biden administration’s immigration policy since the president took office.
• Vice President Kamala Harris, who was tasked with finding a solution to the border crisis, has been the subject of much Republican criticism.
• Whether the supreme court upholds the San Francisco ruling or not, the White House seems to be in a no-win position.

Immigration attitudes

• Recent polls show that significantly more Americans that identified as Republicans (70%) felt that immigration was a major problem than Democrats (25%).
• Inflation (65%), affordable healthcare (64%) and partisanship (61%) are thought by all parties as the top national problems and outweigh illegal immigration (47%).
• The border crisis is unlikely to cost Biden the election, but it will remain a thorn in the administration’s side beyond 2024.