What we’re reading: Beyond conventions, part II

As convention season winds to a close, we look at some of the important issues that activists have brought to the convention floors and to the streets of Philadelphia and Cleveland.

Protesters call on Clinton and Democrats to end deportations, close family detention centers, by Andrew O’Reilly, Fox News Latino

"During the Democratic National Convention, immigrant rights advocates march to demand an immediate moratorium on deportations and the closure of the Berks Detention Center in Pennsylvania. "’The use of family detention is not only breaking Pennsylvania law, it's breaking federal law,’ Jasmine Rivera, an organizer with the Philadelphia-based Latino rights group Juntos told FNL. ‘We want to see Berks Detention Center shutdown. We want to see all detention centers shutdown. …We want to see an end to criminalizing immigration.’"

 Delegates Are Using the Convention to Make the TPP Politically Unacceptable, by John Nichols, via The Nation

On the convention floor, activists opposing the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership make their voices heard. “When President Obama looked out across a packed hall at the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night, he could not have missed the large square signs opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership. They could be seen throughout the sprawling arena. In the Texas delegation and the Oregon delegation, in the Washington delegation and the Wisconsin delegation, delegates waved signs showing the letters 'TPP' circled with a red line slashed through them.”

 "Fact-checking the Democrats" and "Truth-testing Trump on Law and Order", via the Marshall Project

Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump spent part of their convention speeches focused on criminal justice issues. The Marshall Project breaks down the facts (and fiction) behind their words in two recent posts.

 

 DNC delegates support Palestinian rights, even if Democratic Party doesn’t, by Nora Barrows-Friedman, via the Electronic Intifada

Both major political parties have failed to take a stand for Palestinian human rights. But grassroots activists are trying to change that. “On Monday, Ruebner’s group organized events on Palestinian human rights and a panel discussion with activists and member of Congress Keith Ellison to discuss U.S.  policy on Israel. The visible support on the convention floor, Ruebner said, ‘signals a change for the better among the grassroots of the Democratic party, which is becoming more and more supportive of Palestinian rights.’”