Are noncitizens really voting in US elections?

|Kristopher Radder/The Brattleboro Reformer/AP
A resident of Chesterfield, New Hampshire, fills out his ballot during the state primary election on Sept. 10, 2024.

By Christa Case Bryant Staff writer
Sophie Hills Staff writer

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
Sept. 11, 2024, 


With illegal immigration one of the top issues on voters’ minds heading into the 2024 election, Republicans are making a nationwide push to require proof of citizenship in order to vote. The GOP-run House of Representatives passed a bill that would do just that, the SAVE Act, in July – with support from five Democrats.

Former President Donald Trump has also repeatedly urged such measures, including in Tuesday night’s debate, alleging that his opponents are irresponsibly encouraging undocumented immigrants to vote. “A lot of these illegal immigrants coming in, they’re trying to get them to vote, they can’t even speak English, they don’t even know what country they’re in practically, and these people are trying to get them to vote,” he said.

Now Speaker Mike Johnson is saying that unless the House and Senate agree to the SAVE Act, he’ll shut down the government when the fiscal year ends Sept. 30 – though it appears he lacks the support within his own party to do so.

Why We Wrote This

Concerned about voter fraud and illegal immigration, Republicans are pushing to require proof of citizenship to vote. Critics say noncitizen voting is already illegal and rare, but it’s hard to prove a negative. Here’s what is known – and unknown.

But Democrats, citing a lack of documented cases of noncitizen voting, say the law is unnecessary since it’s already illegal for noncitizens to vote. Moreover, they argue, it would result in disqualifying eligible voters. They accuse Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, of pushing this issue to lay the groundwork for claiming the election was stolen if they lose in November.
Is proof of citizenship currently required to vote?

The short answer is, citizenship is required in federal elections, but proof of citizenship generally isn’t, although some voters may provide that while establishing their identity and residency.

Sixteen municipalities allow noncitizens to vote in local elections, according to Ballotpedia. But elsewhere there’s pushback to the idea. Amendments to bar noncitizen voting are on the ballot this fall in eight states: Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Wisconsin.

Only citizens are allowed to vote in federal elections, however, according to U.S. law. On the federal voter registration form, which is accepted by all states except New Hampshire and Wisconsin, prospective voters must check a box affirming under penalty of perjury that they are a U.S. citizen. The form does not require accompanying proof of citizenship, but warns applicants that anyone who provides false information may be fined, imprisoned, or – if a noncitizen – deported.

Many voters demonstrate citizenship status when obtaining certain forms of identification, but state rules vary. Among those with stricter rules:New Hampshire: Requires proof of citizenship to register and vote. Currently, if a voter does not have such proof, he or she can sign an affidavit, under oath, before an election official.
Arizona: Requires proof of citizenship to register via the state’s registration form. However, after numerous legal challenges to the 2022 law requiring proof of citizenship, applicants using the federal form can vote in federal elections (but not state and local elections) without such proof.
Texas: Requires state court clerks to notify the secretary of state of those excused or disqualified from jury duty for not being a U.S. citizen. If those people don’t provide proof of citizenship within 30 days of being notified, their voter registration can be canceled.
Georgia: May cross-check voters’ Social Security numbers against state databases.
How much evidence is there that noncitizens register and vote?

There are very few proven instances of noncitizens registering to vote, and even fewer of them actually voting. Instances of unauthorized immigrants voting are “so rare as to be statistically nonexistent,” says Aaron Reichlin-Melnik, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.

A 2016 study by the Brennan Center for Justice, which involved interviewing local election officials in 42 jurisdictions – including 8 of the 10 with the largest noncitizen populations – found that only an estimated 30 incidents of suspected noncitizen voting among 23.5 million votes cast were referred for further investigation or prosecution. However, the interviews relied on officials’ estimates rather than hard records, and did not ask how officials evaluated eligibility or determined whether to refer cases to prosecution.

Even the conservative Heritage Foundation, which maintains an extensive database of documented voter fraud, has identified just several dozen prosecutions of noncitizens registering to vote or actually voting over the past 20 years. Hans von Spakovsky, who heads the think tank’s Election Law Reform Initiative, says that’s because of both the lack of mechanisms to verify citizenship and the lack of prosecutions.

Jonathan Drake/Reuters
A precinct official performs logic and accuracy testing on voting machines ahead of the coming general election, at Wake County Board of Elections headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina, Sept. 5, 2024.

He cites, for example, a U.S. House Oversight investigation into a California race 20 years ago, which brought to light evidence of 624 votes cast illegally by noncitizens. Ultimately, the California secretary of state did not prosecute any of the cases, determining that each registered in error, not with intent to register illegally.

But efforts by a handful of GOP secretaries of state have not turned up evidence of widespread noncitizen voting. They have flagged thousands of potential noncitizens who tried – and in some cases, succeeded – to register as voters, though only a fraction actually voted. The states, in announcing their findings below, did not disclose how they verified lack of citizenship. One option is cross-checking registered voters with the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database, which verifies immigration status. Alabama: The state since 2023 has identified 3,200 noncitizens registered to vote, though it said it’s possible that some are now naturalized and eligible to vote.
Georgia: A 2022 review in the state, which has a process for checking citizenship, found that election officials had flagged and prevented about 1,600 registration applications by potential noncitizens over the past 25 years.
Ohio: This year, Ohio identified 138 noncitizens “who appear to have cast a ballot” by cross-referencing state and federal databases, including jury pool data.
Virginia: Gov. Glenn Youngkin removed 6,303 noncitizens from the state’s voter rolls over the past two years, based on data collected by the Department of Motor Vehicles and shared with the state Department of Elections.

In each of these states, votes cast by noncitizens account for a significantly smaller share of overall fraud than other categories, such as deceased voters, voters who have moved out of state, or who still have driver’s licenses from another state. In Texas, for example, of more than 1 million people removed from voter rolls since 2021, only 6,500 were potential noncitizens and of those only 1,900 had voted.

Many opponents of stricter proof-of-citizenship standards say noncitizens already have a huge disincentive to vote, risking their status in the country or their ability to naturalize. However, some instances are unintentional, and often the penalties are minimal. For example, in the nearly four dozen cases Heritage documented, only one noncitizen was referred to ICE for deportation. Many did not serve any jail time, and apart from two men who faced a raft of other charges, the highest fine any paid was $2,500.

What are the counter concerns about voting rights?

Some Democrats have warned that measures like additional updates for voter rolls or requiring proof of citizenship could result in voter suppression. Proof-of-citizenship requirements act as an unnecessary hurdle for eligible voters, they say, often pointing to surveys that show that about 1 in 10 Americans don’t have ready access to documents like birth certificates or passports. The Biden administration echoed those concerns in a July statement, adding that an additional risk is accidentally purging eligible voters from voter rolls.

Critics of proof-of-citizenship requirements point to Kansas and Arizona as case studies showing that the number of eligible voters removed from the rolls can far exceed the number of ineligible voters identified.

In Kansas in 2020, a federal appeals court overruled the state’s 2011 law requiring documentary proof of citizenship to apply to register to vote. The court’s decision cited 31,089 voters whose applications were canceled or suspended in the state, and only found evidence that 67 noncitizens attempted to register and that 39 succeeded between 1999 and 2013, when the law took effect.

The heat is on: Indigenous led nonprofit seeks to lower heating expenses with solar thermal

8th Fire Solar was formed in 2018, to produce and install solar thermal technologies. Unlike photovoltaic systems which convert sunlight into electricity, solar thermal only produces heat.

Mathew Holding Eagle III | MPR News

 Getting to Green: Minnesota's energy future

Mathew Holding Eagle III

Osage, Minn

September 11, 2024 

A visitor will find 8th Fire Solar just behind a grove of trees in a remote part of northwestern Minnesota. It’s a small manufacturing facility owned and operated by the local community development group named Akiing. 

Program coordinator Gwekaanimad Gasco is White Earth Ojibwe and a member of the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa.  

“We’re in Osage, Minnesota, just on the boundary of the reservation,” Gasco said.

Leading a tour of the facility Gasco said solar thermal technology is simple. Unlike photovoltaic systems which convert sunlight into electricity, solar thermal uses the rays to warm liquid or air in the system, producing only heat.  

“We use air here, so our system recirculates the air and drops it into the house where they need it. Could be a bedroom, could be a bathroom, living room,” he said.  

A fan pushes air from inside the house through the solar thermal collector. From there it is heated and redistributed back into the home through a warm air outlet. A thermostat allows users to raise or lower the temperature. While effective, it’s not designed to be a home’s sole source of heat but more of a supplement to lower costs.  

Another caveat is that none of the excess energy can be banked.    

“You’re getting a very simple system that you can install yourself that’ll last you 20, 30 years. No moving parts. You know at most the fan might burn out. You might have a wiring problem,” Gasco said. “You call us up, we’re in Osage, right down the block. We’ll come help you out. There’s a 10-year warranty on the panel in the system if we install it.” 

From left to right: Nicholas Bellrock, Jon Martin and Gwe Gasco outside 8th Fire Solar in front of solar thermal panels they helped install at their headquarters near Osage on Aug. 21.

Mathew Holding Eagle III | MPR News

‘Heat vs eat’

Most of the parts used by 8th Fire Solar are sourced in Minnesota. 

Gasco said producing solar thermal panels for impoverished communities is an important tool in the fight for energy sovereignty in tribal lands. He said money spent on energy can’t be spent on groceries.  

And when it is, consumers look to cheaper alternatives. 

“The heat-versus-eating dilemma is a dilemma that’s not just faced by tribal communities around here, but it’s nationwide,” he said. “We’re buying more processed stuff instead of going after the healthier stuff. So that’s directly related to the energy burden, poverty, tribal health. So, it’s all very connected.” 

Gasco said the idea behind solar thermal isn’t new. Pueblo nations in the southwest have been using it for centuries. Their adobe homes absorb the sun’s rays during the day and then keep them warm through the night.

According to Clean Energy Resource Teams one solar air heater can reduce a family’s monthly heating cost by 30 percent.  

“This balance with our environment is something that has been in our blood, in our DNA, you know. So, it only makes sense that we would be the ones to help light the way,” Gasco said. “And I hate to say that because there’s a lot of people of color, there’s a lot of great work being done by a lot of allies, a lot of friends. And it’s never just going to be us at this point. They call it the melting pot for a reason.” 

The company says solar thermal can reduce a household’s carbon emissions by 20 to 40 percent. 

Gasco said 8th Fire Solar get its name from the ancient Anishinaabe, Seven Fires Prophecy. It says we’re currently living in the time of the seventh fire. The prophecy says the next generation, or eighth fire, will come to a fork in the road. One path will be scorched and worn. The other will be green and untrodden.  

“8th Fire is lighting that eighth fire. It’s making that decision to go down that green path,” he said. “That path that we haven’t taken before.” 

Nicholas Bellrock is a shop worker at 8th Fire Solar. He said he’s gained skills he can use in other parts of his life. 

“I like that we have the ability to learn new things every day,” he said. “I’ve learned how to drive a tractor since I got here, and just how to do inventory, things like keep count and wash glass. And how to build a panel.”

Nicholas Bellrock works on preparing a solar thermal panel before installation.

Mathew Holding Eagle III | MPR News

Untapped potential 

Renewable energy expert Robert Blake founded the Solar Bear company. He said for now solar thermal’s potential impact on the environment is untapped.  

“The quickest way for us to fight climate change is to focus on low-income folks, because they’re the ones that are going to suffer the most,” he said. “But that also presents a really good opportunity for us to be able to create jobs opportunities and then fight climate change a lot quicker and faster, because we’re not going to do it with rich people. They already have the resources to fight it.” 

8th Fire Solar installed the first solar thermal unit on the Lake Vermilion Reservation for homeowner Tracey Strong Dagen in 2021. 

She said the transition has lowered her dependence on propane fuel. 

“It’s a very, good supplement during the day. That’s when they mainly heat, so you don’t use propane at all during the day,” she said. “It keeps it pretty steady upstairs. We lost electricity one time too, and my brother’s house got down to 55 [degrees] where mine only got down to 68.”   

8th Fire Solar is currently working toward installing solar thermal for 25 elder households on the White Earth Nation.  

THE ORIGINAL 9/11, 1973

 

At Least Two Saudi Officials May Have Deliberately Assisted 9/11 Hijackers, New Evidence Suggests

Newly revealed information also raises questions about whether the FBI and CIA mishandled or downplayed evidence of the kingdom’s possible ties to the plotter

by Tim Golden

PROPUBLICA

Sept. 11, 2024


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From the start of U.S. investigations into the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the question of whether the Saudi government might have been involved has hovered over the case.

The FBI, after the most extensive criminal probe in its history, concluded that a low-level Saudi official who helped the first two hijackers in California met them by chance and aided them unwittingly. The CIA said it saw no evidence of a higher-level Saudi role. The bipartisan 9/11 commission adopted those findings. A small FBI team continued to dig into the question, turning up information that raised doubts about some of those conclusions.

But now, 23 years after the attacks, new evidence has emerged to suggest more strongly than ever that at least two Saudi officials deliberately assisted the first Qaida hijackers when they arrived in the United States in January 2000.

Whether the Saudis knew the men were terrorists remains unclear. But the new information shows that both officials worked with Saudi and other religious figures who had ties to al-Qaida and other extremist groups.

Most of the evidence has been gathered in a long-running federal lawsuit against the Saudi government by survivors of the attacks and relatives of those who died. That lawsuit has reached a critical moment, with a judge in New York preparing to rule on a Saudi motion to dismiss the case.


Already, though, information put forward in the plaintiffs’ case — which includes videos, telephone records and other documents that were collected soon after the attacks but were never shared with key investigators — argues for a fundamental reassessment of the Saudi government’s possible involvement with the hijackers.

The court files also raise questions about whether the FBI and CIA, which repeatedly dismissed the significance of Saudi links to the hijackers, mishandled or deliberately downplayed evidence of the kingdom’s possible complicity in the attacks that killed 2,977 people and injured thousands more.

“Why is this information coming out now?” asked retired FBI agent Daniel Gonzalez, who pursued the Saudi connections for almost 15 years. “We should have had all of this three or four weeks after 9/11.”

Saudi officials have long denied any involvement in the plot, emphasizing that they were at war with al-Qaida well before 2001.

They have also leaned on earlier U.S. assessments, especially the one-page summary of a joint FBI-CIA report that was publicly released by the Bush administration in 2005. That summary said there was no evidence that “the Saudi Government or members of the Saudi royal family knowingly provided support” for the attacks.

Pages of the report that were declassified in 2022 are more critical of the Saudi role, describing extensive Saudi funding for Islamic charities linked to al-Qaida and the reluctance of senior Saudi officials to cooperate with U.S. counterterrorism efforts.




The plaintiffs’ account still leaves significant gaps in the story of how two known al-Qaida operatives, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, avoided CIA surveillance overseas, flew into Los Angeles under their own names and then — despite speaking no English and ostensibly knowing no one — settled in Southern California to start preparing for the attacks.

Still, the lawsuit has exposed layers of contradictions and deceit in the Saudi government’s portrayal of Omar al-Bayoumi, a middle-aged Saudi graduate student in San Diego who was the central figure in the hijackers’ support network.

Almost immediately after the 9/11 attacks, FBI agents identified Bayoumi as having helped the two young Saudis rent an apartment, set up a bank account and take care of other needs. Bayoumi, then 42, was arrested on Sept. 21, 2001, in Birmingham, England, where he had moved to continue graduate studies in business. Scotland Yard terrorism investigators questioned him for a week in London as two FBI agents monitored the sessions.

Bayoumi dissembled from the start, newly released transcripts of the interrogations show. He said he barely remembered the two Qaida operatives, having met them by chance in a halal cafe in the Los Angeles suburb of Culver City, after he stopped at the Saudi Consulate to renew his passport. The evidence shows he actually renewed his passport the day before the encounter in the cafe, one of many indications that his meeting with the hijackers was planned.

After pressure from Saudi diplomats, Bayoumi was freed by the British authorities without being charged. U.S. officials did not try to have him extradited.

Two years later, in Saudi Arabia, Bayoumi sat for interviews with the FBI and the 9/11 commission that were overseen by Saudi intelligence officials. Again, he insisted that he was just being hospitable to the hijackers. He knew nothing of their plans, he said, and was opposed to violent jihad.

Gonzalez and other FBI agents were dubious. Though Bayoumi was supposedly a student, he did almost no studying. He was far more active in setting up a Saudi-funded mosque in San Diego and spreading money around the Muslim community. (The Saudi government paid him surreptitiously through an aviation-services company in Houston.)

FBI officials in Washington accepted the Saudi depiction of Bayoumi as an amiable, somewhat bumbling government accountant trying to improve his skills, and as a devout but moderate Muslim — and not a spy. The lead agent on the FBI team that investigated him, Jacqueline Maguire, told the 9/11 commission that by “all indications,” Bayoumi’s connection with the hijackers had been the result of “a random encounter” at the cafe.

The 9/11 commission accepted that assessment. The commission’s investigators noted Bayoumi’s “obliging and gregarious” manner in interviews and called him “an unlikely candidate for clandestine involvement with Islamist extremists.” The panel found “no credible evidence that he believed in violent extremism or knowingly aided extremist groups.”

But in 2017, the FBI concluded that Bayoumi was, in fact, a Saudi spy — although it kept that finding secret until 2022, after President Joe Biden ordered agencies to declassify more documents from the 9/11 files

.

A page from an exhibit submitted by the plaintiffs in a long-running lawsuit against the Saudi government over the role it may have played in the 9/11 attacks. The exhibit contains screenshots from a video by a Saudi official, Omar al-Bayoumi, who toured Washington, D.C., in 1999. Credit:Obtained by ProPublica from the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York

Exactly whom in the Saudi government Bayoumi was working for remains unclear. FBI reports describe him as a “cooptee,” or part-time agent, of the Saudi intelligence service, but say he reported to the kingdom’s powerful former ambassador to Washington, Prince Bandar bin Sultan. (Lawyers for the Saudi government have continued to repeat Bayoumi’s earlier denials that he ever had “any assignment” for Saudi intelligence.)


Another layer of Bayoumi’s hidden identity has emerged from documents, videotapes and other materials that were seized from his home and office at the time of his arrest in England. The plaintiffs had sought that information from the Justice Department for years but received almost nothing until the British authorities began sharing their copies of the material in 2023.

Although Saudi officials insist that Bayoumi merely volunteered at a local mosque, the British evidence points to his deeper collaboration with the Ministry of Islamic Affairs. The Saudi royals had established the ministry in 1993 as part of a governing pact with the powerful clergy. In return for political support, they gave the clerics effective control over domestic religious matters and funded their efforts to spread their fundamentalist Wahhabi brand of Islam overseas.

From the start of the FBI’s 9/11 investigation, agents pored over a short excerpt of a videotape recorded at a party that Bayoumi hosted for some two dozen Muslim men in February 2000, soon after Hazmi and Mihdhar arrived in San Diego.

It was another coincidence, Bayoumi claimed, that he held the event in the hijackers’ apartment. The two young Saudis had nothing really to do with the gathering, he said, but he needed to keep his wife and other women in his own apartment, sequestered from male guests according to conservative Muslim custom.

The FBI did not share a full copy of the VHS recording with either its own field agents or the 9/11 families, who sought it repeatedly. (An FBI spokesperson declined to comment on the bureau’s handling of the Bayoumi evidence.) But the full recording was provided to the plaintiffs by the British police last December.

The longer version casts Bayoumi’s gathering in a different light. Although the nominal guest of honor is a visiting Saudi cleric, the two hijackers are carefully introduced to the other guests and are seemingly at the center of the proceedings.

After identifying many of the party guests for the first time, the plaintiffs’ lawyers were able to document that many went on to play significant roles in the hijackers’ support network, helping them set up internet and telephone service, sign up for English classes and buy a used car.

“Bayoumi hand-picked these individuals because he knew and assessed that they were well-suited to provide the Al Qaeda operatives with important forms of support,” the lawyers wrote of the party guests.

Another videotape taken from Bayoumi’s Birmingham home is even more at odds with the image he conveyed to the FBI and the 9/11 commission. The video follows Bayoumi as he tours Washington, D.C., with two visiting Saudi clerics early in the summer of 1999.

Lawyers for the Saudi government called the recording an innocent souvenir — “a tourist video that includes footage of artwork, flowerbeds, and a squirrel on the White House lawn.” But the plaintiffs’ lawyers posit a more ominous purpose, especially as Bayoumi focuses on his main subject: an extensive presentation of the Capitol building, which is shown from a series of vantage points and in relation to other Washington landmarks.

“We greet you, the esteemed brothers, and we welcome you from Washington,” Bayoumi says on the video. Later, standing before the camera, he reports as “Omar al-Bayoumi from Capitol Hill, the Capitol building.”


The footage shows the Capitol from various angles, noting architectural features, entrances and the movement of security guards. Bayoumi sprinkles his narration with religious language and refers to a “plan.”

“Bayoumi’s video footage and his narration are not that of a tourist,” the plaintiffs contend in one court document, citing the analysis of a former FBI expert. The video, they add, “bears the hallmarks of terror planning operations identified by law enforcement and counterterrorism investigators in operational videos seized from terror groups including Al Qaeda.”

Lawyers for the Saudi government dismissed this conclusion as preposterous.

But the video’s timing is noteworthy. According to the 9/11 commission report, Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders began discussing their “planes operation” in the spring of 1999. Although they disagreed on which U.S. landmarks to strike, the report states, “all of them wanted to hit the Capitol.”



The two Saudi clerics who joined Bayoumi on the trip, Adel al-Sadhan and Mutaeb al-Sudairy, were so-called propagators — emissaries of the Islamic Affairs ministry sent to proselytize abroad. U.S. investigators later linked them to a handful of Islamist militants.

Another page from the plaintiffs’ exhibit shows two Saudi religious officials, Mutaeb al-Sudairy and Adel al-Sadhan, during a trip in the Washington, D.C., area with Bayoumi early in the summer of 1999. Credit:Obtained by ProPublica from the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York

Most notably, Sudairy, whom Bayoumi describes as the emir, or leader, of the Washington trip, spent several months living in Columbia, Missouri, with Ziyad Khaleel, a Palestinian-American al-Qaida member who delivered a satellite phone to bin Laden in Afghanistan in 1998. The Qaida leader used the phone to coordinate the deadly bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, FBI officials have said.

Sudairy and Sadhan, who had diplomatic status, had previously visited California, working with Bayoumi and staying at a small San Diego guesthouse where the hijackers later lived. Many new details of their travels were revealed in the British documents. The two Saudis had previously denied even knowing Bayoumi, one of many false claims in depositions coordinated by the Saudi government.

The new evidence also shows that Sadhan and Sudairy worked with the other key Saudi official linked to the hijackers, the cleric Fahad al-Thumairy. According to one FBI source, it was Thumairy, the 32-year-old imam of a prominent Saudi mosque in Culver City, who received the hijackers when they arrived on Jan. 15, 2000, and arranged for their temporary housing and other needs.

Thumairy, a Ministry of Islamic Affairs official who was also assigned to the Saudi consulate, insisted he had no memory of Hazmi and Mihdhar, although the three were seen together by several FBI informants. Thumairy also denied knowing Bayoumi, despite telephone records that show at least five dozen calls between them. Thumairy’s diplomatic visa was withdrawn by the State Department in 2003 because of his suspected involvement with terrorist activity.

In an extensive analysis of telephone records produced by the FBI and the British authorities, the plaintiffs also documented what they called patterns of coordination involving Bayoumi, Thumairy and other Saudi officials. (Lawyers for the Saudi government said the calls were about mundane religious matters.)

Two weeks before the hijackers’ arrival, for example, the records show calls among Bayoumi, Thumairy and the Islamic Affairs director at the Saudi Embassy in Washington. Bayoumi and Thumairy also made a number of calls around that time to a noted Yemeni American cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, who later emerged as an important Qaida leader in Yemen.

Operation Encore and the Saudi Connection: A Secret History of the 9/11 Investigation

It has long been known that Awlaki, who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in 2011, had some contact with Hazmi and Mihdhar in San Diego and met two other 9/11 hijackers after moving to a mosque in Falls Church, Virginia. But many FBI investigators believed he was radicalized well after 9/11 and may not have known the hijackers’ plans.


New evidence filed in the court case points to a more significant relationship. Awlaki appears to have met Hazmi and Mihdhar as soon as they arrived in San Diego. He joined Bayoumi in helping them rent an apartment and set up bank accounts, and he was seen by others to have served as a trusted spiritual advisor.

Awlaki’s worldview “matched quite closely to al-Qaida’s at the time,” said Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, a biographer of Awlaki who served as an expert for the plaintiffs. “The new information now becoming public, on top of what we already know about his teachings and associations, makes it reasonable to conclude that Awlaki knew the hijackers were part of the al-Qaeda network.”



Tim Golden
Tim Golden is a reporter at ProPublica, concentrating on national security, foreign policy and criminal justice.

Indian nurse wins payout against UK care company

Kirankumar Rathod is among more than 100,000 overseas workers who have arrived in Britain to take up care jobs.

Pramod Thomas
10 September, 2024

FILE PHOTO: Former prime ministers Boris Johnson (C) and Rishi Sunak during a visit to Westport Care Home in Stepney Green in London, England. (Photo by Paul Edwards / WPA Pool / Getty Images)

AN Indian nurse who was sacked by a British care company won a significant payout on Monday (9) in a case that lawyers said could spur other migrant workers to pursue claims against unscrupulous bosses

Kirankumar Rathod is among more than 100,000 overseas workers who have arrived in Britain to take up care jobs since 2022 when the government opened up a new visa route to help tackle massive staffing gaps.

But critics say reports of labour abuses in the sector have soared since the scheme’s introduction.

Rathod said he was left in dire financial straits after London-based Clinica Private Healthcare Ltd hired him, but failed to provide him with any work and then fired him.


In an unusual ruling on Monday, employment judge Natasha Joffe ordered Clinica to pay Rathod nearly £17,000 in unpaid wages to date, and to continue paying his salary until his claim for unfair dismissal is decided.

“This is very significant,” Rathod’s solicitor Sarmila Bose of the Work Rights Centre told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“It shows that redress is possible for the many people who have been wronged by the way the visa scheme has been operated.”

Rathod said he was left in dire financial straits after London-based Clinica Private Healthcare Ltd hired him, but failed to provide him with any work and then fired him. (Photo for representation: iStock)

Bose said the award was “a lifesaver” for Rathod, his wife and six-year-old daughter who had been left in a “desperate financial situation” by Clinica.

After the ruling, Rathod said he felt “massive relief”.

“This has been an incredibly stressful time for me, both emotionally and financially, as while Clinica denied me work and income, I was unable to provide for my family,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a statement.

Legal experts said it was extremely rare for judges to grant “interim relief” and the ruling was a strong indication Rathod would win his case at the Central London Employment Tribunal when it is eventually heard in full.

Rathod said he had paid an agent in India £22,000 to secure a care job in Britain – although there is no suggestion Clinica knew this.

After arriving in May 2023, he received a contract to work as a healthcare assistant with an annual salary of £23,500.

When no work materialised, Rathod and other employees visited Clinica’s west London offices several times.

Following one visit, he received an email accusing him of “gross insubordination”.

After months without work, Rathod told a company representative he would take legal action. He was sacked the following day on November 8, 2023.

“I told him the situation was killing me, I could not sleep at night,” Rathod said in a witness statement.

In a previous written summary of the case, the judge said Clinica appeared to have “strung along” a significant number of others and its behaviour suggested “something awry” in the way it ran its business.

The tribunal heard that Clinica’s licence to employ overseas workers had since been revoked. Its representative had argued the company could not be asked to pay Rathod since it no longer had a licence to sponsor overseas workers.

The Work Rights Centre, which is helping three other migrant workers with claims related to different companies, said more than 60 people had approached it with similar stories this year alone.

But Bose said this was the tip of the iceberg.

“Some companies employed dozens of people (from overseas) when they didn’t really have jobs for them,” she said. “The number of people affected overall is in the thousands.”

Labour experts told an investigation by the Thomson Reuters Foundation this year that abuse was rife in the care sector, but most migrant workers did not complain because they feared losing their visa and being deported.

(The Thomson Reuters Foundation)

CASTEISM

Four of Britain's richest family given prison sentences in Switzerland for exploiting servants


Tuesday 10 September 2024 at 6:18pm

The family lived in a lakeside villa in Geneva.Credit: Pixabay

Four members of Britain's richest family have been handed prison sentences in Switzerland for exploiting servants working in their luxury villa.

Prakash Hinduja and his wife, Kamal, were sentenced to four and a half years each, while their son, Ajay, and his wife, Namrata, both received sentences of four years in prison.

The prison sentences have been postponed subject to an appeal lodged by the family's lawyers as allowed under Swiss law.

They banned the workers, mostly illiterate and from India, from leaving the villa and forced them to work excruciatingly long days, sometimes up to 18 hours.

The court found the four guilty of exploiting the workers, paying them wages less than a tenth of the income for domestic work in Switzerland.

The Hindujas were not found guilty of charges of trafficking, on the grounds the staff in part understood what they were getting into.

The family topped this year's Sunday Times Rich List of the United Kingdom's wealthiest people, with a net worth of around £37.2 billion.

Lawyers of the accused, Nicolas Jeandin, left, and Robert Assael, right, leave the court house after a break in the reading of the verdict.Credit: AP

They did not attend court, but a fifth defendant - the family's business manager Najib Ziazi - was present, and received an 18-month suspended sentence.

Employees slept in the basement of the villa, in the Cologny neighbourhood of Geneva, and said Kamal Hinduja instilled a "climate of fear".

They also had their passports seized and were paid with rupees into banks back home that they could not access.

The Hindujas moved to Switzerland in the late 1980s. Prakash Hinduja was convicted on less serious but similar charges in 2007.

Along with three of of his brothers, Prakash Hinduja is a leader of an industrial conglomerate in sectors including information technology, media, power, real estate and healthcare.

Swiss authorities have seized diamonds, rubies, a platinum necklace and other assets from the family, as they could be used to pay for legal fees and possible penalties.

While announcing they intended to appeal, the family's lawyers a statement denying all the allegations outlined in the case.

Stating they were 'appalled' by the court's decision, the Hinduja family’s legal counsel said in a statement: “Our clients the Hinduja family have been acquitted of all human trafficking charges.

"The family denies all other charges against them."As the family are appealing the case, the previous Judgment is not final or binding and the higher court will rehear the case in its entirety.Under the Swiss Code of Criminal Procedure, the presumption of innocence applies until a final judgment by the highest adjudicating authority, which has not yet taken place."Contrary to some media reports, no members of the family are imprisoned as a result of the verdict. The complainants in this case have withdrawn their civil complaints against the family.“The family has full faith in the judicial process and remains confident that the truth will prevail.”

Charles Australia trip to be met by UK protesters



The UK's anti-monarchy campaign Republic will be in Australia to greet Charles and Camilla on their visit next month.

Republic's CEO, Graham Smith, will be in Australia to organise protests in Sydney and Canberra, to coincide with Charles's visit. The group has members and supporters across Australia.

Speaking today, Graham Smith said:

"The message is simple, Charles does not speak for us, he does not represent us, he should go home."

"To Australians and the foreign press, I would say this: do not believe for a moment the British people are a nation of royalists. Most people either don't care much for the royals or they oppose them."

"I won't be there to campaign for an Australian republic, that's for our friends and allies in the Australian Republic Movement to do. Republic's message is about Charles and his role in the UK."

"Republic is growing, we have the resources and the reach to follow Charles, William and other royals where ever they might go. Our message is simple: it's time to abolish the monarchy, it's time to change the country for good."

"Republic will be in Sydney and Canberra, protesting with our yellow banners and large flags, and we welcome Australians, Brits and anyone who has Charles as their head of state to join us."

THE LORDS ARE A FEUDAL LEGACY  ABOLISH THEM

Bishops in the Lords are a ‘feudal legacy’, says ex-BBC boss demanding reform

Lord Birt branded the automatic right for 26 Anglican bishops to sit on the red benches an ‘indefensible undemocratic anomaly’.


Bishops in the House of Lords (PA credit)

Abbie Llewelyn

Anglican bishops sitting in the Lords are a “feudal legacy” that should be ousted along with hereditary peers, a former director-general of the BBC has said.

Independent crossbench peer Lord Birt branded the automatic right for 26 Lords Spiritual to sit on the red benches an “indefensible undemocratic anomaly”.

He urged the Government to consider addressing this as it works to reform the upper chamber, expressing “disappointment” at the lack of a “comprehensive, holistic and long-overdue approach” to modernising the Lords.

Independent crossbench peer Lord Birt (House of Commons/PA)
PA Archive

Lord Birt said: “I support the plan to end the birth right of hereditary peers to sit in this House – it is a feudal anachronism…

“The guaranteed representation of the Church of England in this House is a second feudal legacy, embedded centuries before the notion of democracy gathered pace.”

He argued that there are “very fundamental reasons why embedding representatives of a single church in this house is no longer appropriate”.

Lord Birt cited the 2021 census, in which less than half the population identified as Christian, and of those who identify as Christian, only 21% said that they are Anglican.

The former BBC boss said: “The reality is that we are now an incredibly diverse society, a society comprised of people embracing many faiths and none.

“And we should not embark on a long overdue radical reform of this House without recognising that fact and without recognising that embedding the Church of England in our legislature is an indefensible undemocratic anomaly…

Building regulations still need 'more teeth' post Grenfell, London fire chief warns

The blaze in Dagenham proved that regulations still need strengthening, London fire commissioner Andy Roe says


London Fire Brigade Fire Commissioner Andy Roe, at the scene in Dagenham last month
Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

Noah Vickers

Regulations to improve fire safety in high-rise buildings since the Grenfell Tower tragedy are still “not good enough”, the capital’s fire chief has warned.

London Fire Brigade (LFB) commissioner Andy Roe told a City Hall meeting on Tuesday that while “very important” changes have been made, there is still need for more “teeth” for authorities enforcing the rules, and greater “alignment” between authorities.

Speaking at a meeting of the London Assembly’s fire committee, the commissioner pointed to the recent fire in Dagenham as proof that regulations still need strengthening.

“It’s not good enough yet,” said Mr Roe, pointing out that the building in Dagenham is only seven floors high, with the fire service aware of who the managing agent and building owner are. The building’s cladding was also in the process of being removed ahead of the fire.

With all those factors considered, the commissioner said the fact that a fire “as catastrophic as that” still occurred, showed that high-rise building regulations are still not working as they should be.

The committee’s discussion came a week after the Grenfell Inquiry published its Phase Two report into the 2017 fire, which claimed 72 lives.

Since the publication of the earlier Phase One report in 2019, Mr Roe said there had been “some very important changes, some very important principles and bodies set up”.

He added: “But they still don’t have enough teeth, from my point of view, and they need better alignment, because we have powers, the building safety regulator has powers, the local authority has powers, the Secretary of State themself has powers - [but] we all need to be working together in one system.”

The commissioner also admitted that the LFB could still face a situation where it struggles to handle the volume of calls it receives during a major incident, as happened on the night of the Grenfell fire.

“There is not a control room in the country that would, on its own, be able to hold that volume of calls, as currently structured,” he said.

He added however that LFB control staff had performed well during recent major incidents, such as the July 2022 wildfires, which saw the brigade face its busiest day since the Second World War.

“[There were] thousands of calls, in a very compressed period… so we’ve demonstrated that we can do it,” he said, while cautioning that the organisation is “never relaxed”.

Scottish government faces defeat in free school meals vote

The government previously pledged to expand the provision of free school meals

The Scottish government is expected to be defeated in a vote to expand free school meals to all primary school pupils.

First Minister John Swinney has said he would not be able to fulfil the pledge for a "universal" rollout of the benefit, and instead would expand it only to P6 and 7 pupils in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment.

The position will be challenged in a debate led by the Scottish Conservatives on Wednesday, though the government is not obliged to take action on the results.

The Scottish government said it remained "resolutely committed" to the universal expansion of free school meals in primary schools but the funding was not available due to significant financial pressures.

Free school meals are provided for all pupils in P1 to P5, but former First Minister Humza Yousaf said he wanted every primary pupil to receive the benefit last year.

The Scottish government said it would not be able to keep this commitment in its latest programme for government due to "prolonged Westminster austerity and record high inflation".

School meals per child can cost families £400 a year.

On Monday, Scottish Conservative MSP Liam Kerr submitted a motion for debate, calling on the government to give free school meals to all primary pupils this parliamentary session "as promised".

Opposition parties are expected to echo this, meaning a likely defeat for the government.

PA Media
John Swinney confirmed his programme for government last week

The Scottish Conservatives have also put forward a motion to vote on the government's decision to end a scheme that scrapped peak-time rail fares.

The pilot, which saw ticket prices subsidised by the Scottish government and standardised across the day, ended in September following "limited success".

Last month Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop said there had been an increase in passenger levels of about 6.8% during the pilot but it would need to be 10% in order for the policy to be self-financing.

PA Media
Holyrood will also face a vote on the peak rail fares pilot scheme

Children’s Commissioner Nicola Killean said the rollback on universal free school meals was a "broken promise to children" and warned that the move would only exacerbate stigma and shame around them.

Ms Killean said that going to school hungry could "severely impact development in childhood and into adulthood".

She said: "Providing access to universal school meals is vital: it helps reduce stigma and reinforces the understanding of food as a human right.

"We know that children who experience food insecurity are more likely to experience poor health, obesity and malnutrition, as well as other challenges to their physical and mental development.

“One of the greatest barriers to the take up of school meals are feelings of shame and stigma, and only providing meals to Primary 6 and 7 in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment just exacerbates that stigma."


Ms Killean went on to say she had heard stories of some children buying extra food to share with their poorer classmates, while teachers were also stepping in to help those who could not eat.

Scottish Greens education spokesman Ross Greer called the government's decision on the policy a "shameful U-turn".

He said: "The Scottish Greens fought hard to secure expansion of universal free school meals because we know how important they are for tackling child poverty and inequality.

"We were proud to secure the inclusion of all Primary 4 and 5 pupils and the commitment to include Primary 6 and 7, so we are deeply disappointed to see the SNP drop that commitment at the first opportunity."


Financial challenges


Scottish Liberal Democrat communities spokesman Willie Rennie said ministers should not make promises they cannot keep on efforts to improve child poverty.

He added: “Nicola Sturgeon, Humza Yousaf and John Swinney all committed to universal free school meals for primary pupils, but they have all failed to deliver."

A Scottish government spokesman said it had warned of financial challenges due to "prolonged Westminster austerity, the cost of living crisis and record high inflation".

He added: “That means that, whilst we remain resolutely committed to the universal expansion of free school meals in primary schools, the funding is not available for this to be completed by 2026.

“We continue to provide free school meals for nearly 278,000 pupils in primaries 1 to 5, special schools and to those eligible to S6 saving families around £400 per child per year.

"Our immediate focus is now to expand provision further to those in Primary 6 and 7 in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment, which we will deliver in this parliamentary term."